Term | Definition |
Atmosphere | the gaseous envelope surrounding the earth; the air. |
Stratosphere | the region of the upper atmosphere extending upward from the tropopause to about 30 miles (50 km) above the earth, characterized by little vertical change in temperature |
Troposphere | the lowest layer of the atmosphere, 6 miles (10 km) high in some areas and as much as 12 miles (20 km) high in others, within which there is a steady drop in temperature with increasing altitude and within which nearly all cloud formations occur and weath |
Thermosphere | the region of the upper atmosphere in which temperature increases continuously with altitude, encompassing essentially all of the atmosphere above the mesosphere. |
Air pressure | the force exerted by air, whether compressed or unconfined, on any surface in contact with it. |
Radiation | the process in which energy is emitted as particles or waves |
Thermal conduction | is the transfer of internal energy by microscopic diffusion and collisions of particles or quasi-particles within a body |
Convection | Physics. the transfer of heat by the circulation or movement of the heated parts of a liquid or gas. |
Global warming | an increase in the earth's average atmospheric temperature that causes corresponding changes in climate and that may result from the greenhouse effect. |
Greenhouse effect | an atmospheric heating phenomenon, caused by short-wave solar radiation being readily transmitted inward through the earth's atmosphere but longer-wavelength heat radiation less readily transmitted outward, owing to its absorption by atmospheric carbon di |
Wind | air in natural motion, as that moving horizontally at any velocity along the earth's surface: |
Coriolis effect | the apparent deflection (Coriolis acceleration) of a body in motion with respect to the earth, as seen by an observer on the earth, attributed to a fictitious force (Coriolis force) but actually caused by the rotation of the earth and appearing as a defle |
Westerlies | moving, directed, or situated toward the west |
Trade winds | Also, trade winds. Also called trades. any of the nearly constant easterly winds that dominate most of the tropics and subtropics throughout the world, blowing mainly from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere, and from the southeast in the Southern He |
Polar easterlies | The polar easterlies (also Polar Hadley cells) are the dry, cold prevailing winds that blow from the high-pressure areas of the polar highs at the north and south poles towards low-pressure areas within the Westerlies at high latitudes.[1] Cold air subsid |
Jet stream | strong, generally westerly winds concentrated in a relatively narrow and shallow stream in the upper troposphere of the earth. |
Air pollution | Contamination of air by smoke and harmful gases, mainly oxides of carbon, sulfur, and nitrogen |
Acid precipitation | meteorological precipitation that is relatively acidic. |