Smoke- Smoke in various concentrations can cause significant problems for people with respiratory ailments. It becomes a more universal hazard when visibilities are reduced to ¼ mile or less.
- Browse Related Terms: Doc, Excessive Heat Outlook, Experimental Product, ITWAS, K, National Severe Storms Laboratory, NSSL, Operational Products, Residual Moisture, Smoke, track
Also listed in:
- All > Technology > Defense
Cold Air Mass
- Browse Related Terms: A AMS, C AMS, CAD, Cold Air Avalanche, Cold Air Dam, Cold Air Damming (CAD), cold front, Continental Air Mass, Effective Topography, Extratropical, front, K AMS, Marine Push, Maritime Air Mass, Maritime Polar Air Mass, Maritime Tropical Air Mass, Orographic Precipitation, Polar Front, Specific Humidity, Upslope Fog, Vortex, Warm front
In solar-terrestrial terms, of the white-light corona (that is, the corona seen by the eye at a total solar eclipse), that portion which is caused by sunlight scattered by electrons in the hot outer atmosphere of the sun.
- Browse Related Terms: Active Surge Region (ASR), Bright Surge on the Disk (BSD), Bright Surge on the Limb (BSL), Chromosphere, Coronal Hole, Coronal Transients, Dark Surge on Disk (DSD), F Corona, Facula, Granulation, K Corona, Prominence
A measure of the thunderstorm potential based on vertical temperature lapse rate, moisture content of the lower atmosphere, and the vertical extent of the moist layer. The temperature difference between 850 mb and 500 mb is used to parameterize the vertical temperature lapse rate. The 850 dew point provides information on the moisture content of the lower atmosphere. The vertical extent of the moist layer is represented by the difference of the 700 mb temperature and 700 mb dew point. This is called the 700 mb temperature-dew point depression. The index is derived arithmetically and does not require a plotted sounding.
K-index = (850 mb temperature - 500 mb temperature) + 850 mb dew point - 700 mb dew point depression
- Browse Related Terms: Delta T, Dew Point Depression, DP, Haines Index, Isentropic Surface, Isodrosotherm, Isopleth, Isotherm, K-Index, Moisture Ridge, Nieve Penitente, Radiation Fog, Total-Totals Index
A wind that is created by air flowing downhill.
- Browse Related Terms: Easterlies, FLW, Katabatic wind, Leeward, Moisture Advection, Prevailing Westerlies, Rawinsonde, Straight-line Winds, UWNDS, Wind Field, Windward, WND
Also listed in:
- All > Science > Weather > Climate Change
A front where the warm air descends the frontal surface (except in the low layers of the atmosphere).
- Browse Related Terms: CFP, Cold Occlusion, FROPA, Katafront, Occluded Front, Occluded Mesocyclone, OCFNT, PSG, Stationary Front, Warm Occlusion, Warm Sector, WFP, Wrapping Gust Front, WRM, WRMFNT
An index used to gage the severity of drought in deep duff and organic soils.
- Browse Related Terms: Automated Event Reporting Gage, base station, CMPLT, Crest Gage, DCP, E-19, Report on River Gage Station, E-19a, Abridged Report on River Gage Sta, Float Recording Precipitation gage, Flood Stage, Keetch-Byrum Drought Index, RNFL, RSG, Tipping-Bucket Rain Gage
Vertical waves in the air associated with wind shear across statically-stable regions. Can appear as breaking waves and as braided patterns in radar images and cloud photos.
- Browse Related Terms: Amplitude, Beach Erosion, Flood Crest, Gravity Wave, Kelvin-Helmholtz Waves, LGWV, Microwave, Pressure Induced Wave, Radiation, Radio Emission, reflection, Refractive Index, RHI, Rough Seas, Seiche, Spray, Tidal Piling, Tsunami, Wave Crest, Wave Steepness, Wave Trough
An absolute temperature scale in which a change of 1 Kelvin equals a change of 1 degree Celsius; 0°K is the lowest temperature on the Kelvin scale. The freezing point of water is +273°K (Kelvin) and the boiling point of +373°K. It is used primarily for scientific purposes. It is also known as the Absolute Temperature Scale.
- Browse Related Terms: Azimuth, Celsius, Declination, F, Fahrenheit, Kelvin Temperature Scale, STJ, Subtropical Jet, Tropics
Fluctuations in wind speed at the ocean surface at the Equator result in eastward propagating waves, known as Kelvin Waves. Kelvin Waves cause variations in the depth of the oceanic thermocline, the boundary between warm waters in the upper ocean and cold waters in the deep ocean. They play an important role in monitoring and predicting El Ni&ntild;o episodes.
- Browse Related Terms: EWD, Kelvin Waves, NAO, North Atlantic Oscillation, Oceanography, Return Flow, Thermocline, Tropical Cyclone, W
The internationally recognized unit used by the Atmospheric Environment Service for measuring atmospheric pressure. Abbreviated kPa.
- Browse Related Terms: Atmospheric Pressure, Hectopascal, hPa, Isobar, Kilopascal, Millibar, Pascal
Energy that a body has as a result of its motion. Mathematically, it is defined as one-half the product of a body's mass and the square of its speed (KE = 1/2 * mass * velocity squared).
Also listed in:
An electron tube used as a low-power oscillator or a high-power amplifier at ultrahigh frequencies.
- Browse Related Terms: General Circulation, Intraseasonal Oscillation, Klystron, LLJ, Low Level Jet, Madden-Julian Oscillation, MJO
Slang for lumpy protrusions on the edges, and sometimes the underside, of a thunderstorm anvil. They usually appear on the upwind side of a back-sheared anvil, and indicate rapid expansion of the anvil due to the presence of a very strong updraft. They are not mammatus clouds. See also cumuliform anvil and anvil rollover.
- Browse Related Terms: Anvil, Anvil Crawler, Anvil Zits, Back-sheared Anvil, Blue Watch or Blue Box, Cumuliform Anvil, Knuckles, Mammatus Clouds, Mushroom, Orphan Anvil, Positive Cloud to Ground Lightning, Spin-Up, SPRD, Vort Max, Wildfire
A 3-hourly planetary geomagnetic index of activity generated in Gottingen, Germany, based on the K Index from 12 or 13 stations distributed around the world
- Browse Related Terms: Kp Index, Mean Low Water, Mean Lower Low Water, MLLW, MLW, Primary Control Tide Station
(Knot)- Unit of speed used in navigation, equal to 1 nautical mile (the length of 1 minute latitude) per hour or about 1.15 statue miles per hour, or 0.5 meters/sec).
- Browse Related Terms: AMT, Angstrom, Hertz, Isohel, Isohyet, Knot, KT, mi, Micron, Nautical Mile, nm, SM
Also listed in:
- All > Technology > Defense
Knots
- Browse Related Terms: g, Gust, Kts, MAX, Peak Wind Speed, PK, Rain Shield, Squall, Turbulence, Unimodal, Variable Wind, Variable Wind Direction, Wind Gust, Wind Shift, Wind Speed
Also listed in:
- All > Technology > Defense