Potential, equipotential surface: a surface that is completely perpendicular to the direction of gravity, as in water at rest. Sea level is not an equipotential surface because oceans have a permanent topography that is caused by temperature, salinity, currents, etc. (United States National Weather Service)
Prime contractor: an industrial contractor having a direct contract for an entire project; the contractor may in turn assign portions of the work to subcontractors.
Repeatability of a measure: that, in testing a scientific observation, the same individual operating the same instruments in the same conditions will achieve comparable measurements. (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry)
Reproducibility/replication of a measure: that an observation or experiment can be repeated using the same equipment, under the same conditions by different individuals. (ibid)
Scenario: a plausible and often simplified description of how the future may develop, based on a coherent and internally consistent set of assumptions about driving forces and key relationships. Scenarios may be derived from projections, but are often based on additional information from other sources, sometimes combined with a narrative storyline.(1)
Spatial resolution: size of the elementary measurement. A spatial resolution of 5 km indicates that the elementary element, the pixel, is 5 km in dimension.
Spectrometer: a generic term for an instrument that measures the intensity of radiation as a function of wavelength of the radiation or that breaks down any signal into its wavelength components. (4)
Subsidence: downward motion in the atmosphere. The phenomenon creates areas of air with high barometric pressure.
Topography: the study and science of the Earth’s surface. Topographic techniques aim to convey information about a specific geographic area, including landform, vegetation, population, etc. Techniques such as altimetry and plane projection allow for three-dimensional forms to be modeled on a two dimensional place, such as a map or chart. (3)
Trade winds: the prevailing winds in the Equatorial region (between 30°N and 30°S).They form at sea level and blow generally from northeast to southwest north of the Equator and from the southeast to the northwest south of the Equator. (4)
Space-time variability: climate variability refers to variations in the mean state and other statistics (standard deviations, the occurrence of extremes, etc.) of the climate on all temporal and spatial scales beyond that of individual weather events. Variability may be due to natural internal processes within the climate system (internal variability), or to variations in natural or anthropogenic external forcing (external variability). (Web greenfacts.org)
Vertical profiling: associated to certain active instruments (radars) which can provide a vertical cross-section of the observed zone (for example atmosphere), showing its different homogeneous layers.
Wind field: a three dimensional description of wind directions, strength and characteristics in a given geographic area. (cc National Weather Service)
| E To O > |
|---|
