Climate Change terms starting with O

22 terms

  1. obliquity the tilt of the earth's axis of rotation, currently 23.4 degrees.
  2. Observation (OB-ser-VAY-shun) Closely monitoring a patient's condition but withholding treatment until symptoms appear or change.
  3. Observational network Observational network A group of stations (surface meteorological, upper-air, or other stations) spread over a given area for making regular observations.
  4. Occluded Front A composite of two fronts, formed as a cold front overtakes a warm or quasi-stationary front.
  5. Oil Defined as oil of any kind or in any form including, but not limited to, petroleum, fuel oil, sludge, oil refuse, and oil mixed with wastes.
  6. Oil shale Underground formation of a fine-grained sedimentary rock containing varying amounts of kerogen, a solid, waxy mixture of hydrocarbon compounds.
  7. optical depth A measure of how much light airborne particles, whether aersols, cloud droplets, or ice particles, prevent from passing through a column of atmosphere.
  8. orbital cycles variations in the Earth's orbit around the sun with periods of 23,000 (precession of the equinoxes), 41,000 (obliquity), and 100,000 years (eccentricity).
  9. Ore Rock or earth containing workable quantities of a mineral or minerals of commercial value.
  10. Organic compound An organic compound contains carbon chemically bound to hydrogen. Organic compounds often contain other elements (particularly O, N, halogens, or S).
  11. Organic fertilizer Organic material such as manure or compost, applied to cropland as a source of plant nutrients.
  12. ostracod a small crustacean that lives in either the ocean or in freshwater.
  13. Oxidize To chemically transform a substance by combining it with oxygen.
  14. Oxygen cycle Cyclic movement of oxygen in different chemical forms from the environment, to organisms, and then back to the environment.
  15. oxygen isotope ratio (&#948;<sup>18</sup>O) an expression for the ratio of the two isotopes 18O to 16O in a sample relative to a standard, defined as: δ18O= (18O/16Osample - 18O/16Ostandard)/…
  16. Ozone Tropospheric ozone (ground-level ozone), or smog, is formed when volatile organic compounds, oxygen and nitrogen oxides react in the presence of sunlight.
  17. Ozone (O3) A strong-smelling, reactive, toxic, chemical gas consisting of three oxygen atoms chemically attached to each other.
  18. Ozone (O<sub>3</sub>) A colorless gas with a pungent odor, having the molecular form of O3 , found in two layers of the atmosphere, the stratosphere (about 90% of the total…
  19. Ozone Depleting Substance (ODS) A family of man-made compounds that includes, but are not limited to, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), bromofluorocarbons (halons), methyl chloroform, carbon…
  20. Ozone Layer An atmospheric layer that contains a high proportion of oxygen that exists as ozone.
  21. Ozone Precursors Chemical compounds, such as carbon monoxide, methane, non-methane hydrocarbons, and nitrogen oxides, which in the presence of solar radiation react with…
  22. Ozone shield Ozone shield Stratospheric ozone layer, giving protection to the Earth's surface due to intense absorption of harmful solar ultraviolet radiation by the…