Climate Change — page 5 of 10

Climate Change terms

401. Gradient wind Gradient wind The same as geostrophic wind, but blowing parallel to curved isobars or contours.
402. Grassland Terrestrial ecosystem (biome) found in regions where moderate annual average precipitation (25 to 76 centimeters or 10 to 30 inches) is enough to support…
403. Graupel Same as snow pellets or small hail.
404. Gravity Wave A wave created by the action of gravity on density variations in the stratified atmosphere.
405. Greenhouse Effect A popular term used to describe the heating effect due to the trapping of long wave (length) radiation by greenhouse gases produced from natural and human…
406. Greenhouse Gas Some greenhouse gases, which contribute to the greenhouse effect, occur naturally in the atmosphere while others result from human activities such as the…
407. Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Any gas that absorbs infrared radiation in the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases include, but are not limited to, water vapor, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane…
408. Greenhouse Gases Those gases, such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, tropospheric ozone, methane, and low level ozone that are transparent to solar radiation, but opaque to…
409. Greenland High Greenland High The anticyclone that appears to overlie Greenland; analogous to the Antarctic anticyclone.
410. Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) (GMT) Same as Coordinated Universal Time (UTC); the international time standard kept at Greenwich, England.
411. Grid A common term referring to an electricity transmission and distribution system.
412. Hail Showery precipitation in the form of irregular pellets or balls of ice more than 5 mm in diameter, falling from a cumulonimbus cloud.
413. hailstones Transparent or partially opaque particles of ice that range in size from that of a pea to that of golf balls.
414. Half-life The time in which half the atoms of a particular radioactive nuclide disintegrate. The half-life is a characteristic property of each radioactive isotope.
415. haline related to salt.
416. Halo Any of a variety of bright circles or arcs centered on the sun or moon, caused by the refraction or reflection of light by ice crystals suspended in the…
417. Halocarbons Compounds containing either chlorine, bromine or fluorine and carbon. Such compounds can act as powerful greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
418. Halons Compounds, also known as bromofluorocarbons, that contain bromine, fluorine, and carbon.
419. Haze (abbrev. HZ)- An aggregation in the atmosphere of very fine, widely dispersed, solid or liquid particles, or both, giving the air an opalescent appearance…
420. Heat Pressure and intimidation used by a casino to discourage card counters.
421. Heat Balance Energy output from a system that equals energy input.
422. Heat balance of the Earth-atmosphere system Heat balance of the Earth-atmosphere system The equilibrium that exists on the average between the radiation received by the Earth and atmosphere from the…
423. Heat budget Heat budget Relation between fluxes of heat into and out of a given region or body and the heat stored by the system.
424. heat capacity The ratio of the heat absorbed (or released) by a system to the corresponding temperature rise (or fall).
425. Heat Content The amount of heat in a quantity of matter at a specific temperature and pressure.
426. Heat flux Heat flux Amount of heat, transferred in a liquid, in particular in the atmosphere, per unit of time through a unit area.
427. heat index (HI) (HI) An index that combines air temperature and relative humidity to determine an apparent temperature-how hot it actually feels.
428. Heat Sink A structure or media that absorbs heat.
429. Heat Source A structure or media from which heat can be absorbed or extracted.
430. Heinrich Events periods of increased discharge of icebergs from the margin of ice sheets into the North Atlantic Ocean during the last glacial.
431. Hertz A measure of the number of cycles or wavelengths of electrical energy per second; U.S. electricity supply has a standard frequency of 60 hertz.
432. High (abbrev. HI)- In meteorology, a region of high pressure; also known as anticyclone.
433. High-level clouds High-level clouds Cirrus, Cirrocumulus and Cirrostratus are high-level clouds.
434. Higher heating value Quantity of heat liberated by the complete combustion of a unit volume or weight of a fuel assuming that the produced water vapor is completely condensed…
435. Histosol Wet organic soils, such as peats and mucks.
436. Hoarfrost Hoarfrost A deposit of interlocking ice crystals (hoar crystals) formed by direct sublimation on objects, usually those of small diameter freely exposed…
437. Holocene epoch an epoch of the Quaternary period dating from the end of the Pleistocene approximately 11,500 years ago until the present.
438. horizontal wind The horizontal wind in terms of either speed and direction, or the zonal (u) and meridional (v) components.
439. Humidity A measure of the moisture content of air; may be expressed as absolute, mixing ratio, saturation deficit, relative, or specific.
440. Hurricane (abbrev. HURCN) A tropical cyclone in the Atlantic, Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, or eastern Pacific, which the maximum 1-minute sustained surface wind…
441. Hydrocarbons Substances containing only hydrogen and carbon. Fossil fuels are made up of hydrocarbons.
442. Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) Compounds containing hydrogen, fluorine, chlorine, and carbon atoms. Although ozone depleting substances, they are less potent at destroying stratospheric…
443. Hydroelectric Power Plant A power plant that produces electricity by the force of water falling through a hydro turbine that spins a generator.
444. Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) Compounds containing only hydrogen, fluorine, and carbon atoms. They were introduced as alternatives to ozone depleting substances in serving many…
445. Hydrologic Cycle Cycle of water movement from atmosphere to Earth by precipitation and its return to the atmosphere by interception, evaporation, runoff, infiltration…
446. hydrologic cycle (or water cycle) the combined fluxes of water occurring on, above, and below the surface of the earth.
447. Hydrometeor A particle of condensed water (liquid, snow, ice, graupel, hail) in the atmosphere.
448. hydrometeor types Information that delineates hydrometeors into such microphysical classes as rain, snow, graupel, and hail.
449. Hydropower The force of flowing water moving downstream creates energy that can be harnessed and turned into electricity.
450. Hydrosphere The region that includes all the earth's liquid water, frozen water, floating ice, frozen upper layer of soil, and the small amounts of water vapor in the…
451. Hygrometer An instrument which measures the humidity of the air.
452. hygroscopic growth The rate that aerosol particles grow at relative humidity values less than 100 percent.
453. Hypothesis A tentative proposal made to explain certain observations or facts that requires further investigation to be verified.
454. ICE Ice The solid state of water.
455. Ice Age A time of widespread glaciation.
456. Ice blink Ice blink White glare on the underside of low clouds indicating presence of ice which may be beyond the range of vision.
457. Ice Core A cylindrical section of ice removed from a glacier or an ice sheet in order to study climate patterns of the past.
458. ice crystal Precipitation consisting of small, slowly falling crystals of ice.
459. ice nuclei Particles that act as nuclei for the formation of ice crystals in the atmosphere.
460. Ice patrol ship Ice patrol ship A research ship which performs ice surveys in polar regions.
461. ice rafted detritus continental material transported within a matrix of ice and deposited in marine sediments when the ice matrix melts.
462. ice sheet a mass of glacier ice that covers a wider area than a glacier does.
463. ice sheet margin edge of the ice sheet where melting and calving of icebergs occurs.
464. ice streams region within an ice sheet where ice moves towards the ice sheet margin significantly faster than the surrounding ice does.
465. Icelandic Low A semi-permanent, subpolar area of low pressure in the North Atlantic Ocean. Because of its broad area and range of central pressure, it is an area where…
466. Icing A coating of ice on a solid object.
467. Ideal Gas Laws The thermodynamic laws applying to perfect gases.
468. Industrial sector Construction, manufacturing, agricultural and mining establishments.
469. infrared brightness temperature (°C) (°C) The downwelling atmospheric emission in the 9.9 to 11.4 micrometers band; in general, relatively warmer temperatures imply "thicker" clouds.
470. Infrared Radiation Electromagnetic radiation whose wavelengths lie in the range from 0.75 micrometer to 1000 micrometers; invisible long wavelength radiation (heat) capable…
471. Infrastructure Management Board (IMB) (IMB) ACRF management team that manages the overall budget, planning, user request screening, activity implementation, and impact assessments for the ARM…
472. inorganic chemical composition The chemical composition of an aerosol, with the exception of those with hydrocarbons, and usually including carbides, oxides of carbon, metallic…
473. Inorganic compound Historically, chemicals that could not be derived from living processes. In modern usage, chemicals that do not contain carbon, although carbonates and a…
474. Inorganic fertilizer See synthetic fertilizer.
475. Insolation The solar power density incident on a surface of stated area and orientation, usually expressed as Watts per square meter or Btu per square foot per hour.
476. instantaneous radiative flux (IRF) (IRF) An approach that involves collecting data on the distribution of radiation and the radiatively active constituents of the atmosphere and radiative…
477. instrument data processing circuit Data processing module that transforms data from the instrument output format into a designed data structure in netCDF format.
478. instrument mentor The technical point of contact for ACRF instrument systems. Mentors are the presumed experts on the instrument and the data it provides.
479. Instrument Shelter A boxlike structure designed to protect temperature measuring instruments from exposure to direct sunshine, precipitation, and condensation, while at the…
480. instrumental record data measured using instruments, such as thermometers and rain gauges.
481. interglacial a time interval characterized by lack of glacial ice in mid-latitudes, such as modern Holocene climate.
482. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) The IPCC was established jointly by the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization in 1988.
483. Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) The region where the northeasterly and southeasterly trade winds converge, forming an often continuous band of clouds or thunderstorms near the…
484. Inversion A chromosome re-arrangement, which involves the re-orientation of a segment so that the order of a linear array of genes within it is reversed.
485. Ion An atom or molecule that has lost or gained one or more electrons and has become electrically charged as a result.
486. Irradiance The direct, diffuse, and reflected solar radiation that strikes a surface.
487. Irreversibilities Changes that, once set in motion, cannot be reversed, at least on human time scales.
488. Isobar A line connecting points of equal pressure.
489. Isohyet A line that connects points of equal rainfall.
490. Isotach A line connecting points of equal wind speed.
491. Isotherm A line connecting points of equal temperature.
492. Isothermal Having a constant temperature.
493. isotope (I-soh-tope) A form of a chemical element in which the atoms have the same number of protons (part of the nucleus of an atom) but with a different number…
494. Isotropic the property of being independent of direction. Isotropic radiation has the same intensity regardless of the direction of measurement.
495. jökulhlaup a flood of meltwater from a glacial lake.
496. Jet When air is sent at a high velocity through the carburetor, jets direct the fuel into the airstream.
497. Jet fuel Includes both naphtha-type and kerosene-type fuels meeting standards for use in aircraft turbine engines.
498. Jet Stream (abbrev. JSTR) Relatively strong winds concentrated in a narrow stream in the atmosphere, normally referring to horizontal, high-altitude winds.
499. Jet Stream Cirrus A loose term for filamentous cirrus that appears to radiate from a point in the sky, and exhibits characteristics associated with strong vertical wind…
500. Joint implementation Agreements made between two or more nations under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to help reduce greenhouse gas…