- Industry: Education
- Number of terms: 13055
- Number of blossaries: 0
- Company Profile:
Founded in 1879 and named after Texas' greatest hero General Sam Houston, Sam Houston State University is public shcool within the Texas state university system and located in Huntsville, Texas.
It's a multicultural institution that offers 79 bachelorette degree programs, 54 masters and five ...
Stable liquids or gases usually produced for solvents, aerosol propellants, refrigeration, air conditioner or styrofoam purposes. These high vapor pressure liquids/gases are chemically stable and have long atmospheric lifetimes; therefore, they can eventually become well-mixed in the troposphere and ultimately diffuse into the stratosphere. Upon encountering high energy UV light in the upper stratosphere these species are photodissociated and ultimately release all of their atoms there. The free radical chlorines (or bromines in the case of some halons) catalytically destroy ozone (see chlorine) in the stratosphere.
Industry:Chemistry; Weather
Step in the nitrogen cycle which involves the reduction of nitrates into nitrite, nitrous oxide, ammonia or elemental nitrogen. It is carried out by certain forms of denitrifying bacteria in the soil and serves as an important part of the breakdown of dead organism. It is responsible for the loss of much of the soil's natural and synthetic fertilizers. This process is favored most in warm, anaerobic conditions.
Industry:Chemistry; Weather
Strong winds associated with mountains and valleys. They occur when cold, dense air is produced by radiational cooling flows downhill due to the pull of gravity to a lower, warmer region such as depressions and valleys.
Industry:Chemistry; Weather
Term for water vapor that removes particulate matter from the atmosphere.
Industry:Chemistry; Weather
That part of the atmosphere which contains water in the liquid, solid, or gaseous phase.
Industry:Chemistry; Weather
The (continuous) flow of methane from one place in the atmosphere to another. It is usually measured as a rate of flow across a given area where methane is produced; for instance, the average amount of methane being released from a rice field of a specific area every hour would be considered the methane flux rate for that field.
Industry:Chemistry; Weather
The ability of a system to do work. Some forms of energy include kinetic (motion), potential (location), thermal (heat), gravitational, and electrical. In chemistry, energy is required to form and break bonds of molecules. Common units of energy are the calorie and joule. According to the Law of Conservation of Energy, energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only transformed.
Industry:Chemistry; Weather
The abnormal reversal of temperature in the troposphere caused by meteorological conditions. This leads to the entrapment of urban air pollution because mixing of surface air into the rest of the troposphere is limited. Under normal circumstances, air in the troposphere is cold at high altitudes and warm at low altitudes, or near the earth's surface. (See lapse rate. ) When air pollutants, such as O<sub>3</sub>, SO<sub>2</sub> or NO<sub>x</sub>, in urban areas get too concentrated, smog is produced. This can lead to human health disturbances in people with respiratory illnesses such as asthma. Surface temperature inversions are created when the lapse rate goes negative, that is, when the temperature profile of low lying tropospheric air increases with altitude. Air at the earth's surface is trapped there because the air above it is less warmer and less dense. This can be disastrous for the air quality in urban areas when anthropogenic pollutants are not mixed away from the surface and, instead, build up. In London, England in 1952, 4,000 people died during a four-day temperature inversion event in December. In Donora, Pennsylvania in 1948 a five-day temperature inversion trapped smog---made of soot, SO<sub>2</sub>, and metal fumes from a zinc works---that killed 20 people.
Industry:Chemistry; Weather
The accelerated aging of skin due to long-term exposure to sun light particularly UV-B; the symptoms include loss of skin elasticity, wrinkles, altered pigmentation, lowered amounts of collagen and connective tissue. ,
Industry:Chemistry; Weather
The addition of air particles to hydrated drops (snow, rain, sleet, etc. ) by coagulation as the drops fall through the sky.
Industry:Chemistry; Weather
