- Industry: Education
- Number of terms: 34386
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Founded in 1876, Texas A&M University is a U.S. public and comprehensive university offering a wide variety of academic programs far beyond its original label of agricultural and mechanical trainings. It is one of the few institutions holding triple federal designations as a land-, sea- and ...
A period of time lasting from AD 750 to 1200 when the climate of Europe and North America was clement, even as far north as Greenland and Iceland.
Industry:Earth science
A periodic wind caused by the effects of differential heating, with the largest and most notorious being the Indian monsoon found in the Indian Ocean and southern Asia. The word is thought to have originated from the Arabic word mausim meaning season.
Industry:Earth science
A permanent eastward flowing feature of the equatorial Atlantic circulation whose core is located near 200 m depth a few degrees north of the Equator. A satisfactory dynamical explanation for this is as yet nonexistent.
Industry:Earth science
A persistent poleward flow over the continental slope region off northwestern Europe. It is thought to originate as far south as the Armorican Slope region off the west coast of northern France, and flows north past the exit of the Faroe–Shetland Channel. This current supplies the saltiest and warmest water exchanged over the Greenland–Scotland Ridge, a water mass known as North Atlantic Water.
Industry:Earth science
A phenomena related to the pressure dependence of the thermal expansion coefficient for the density of seawater. The dependence of the compressibility of seawater on both potential temperature and salinity means that water parcels displaced laterally without doing any work against gravity will not follow neutral surfaces defined in terms of spatially averaged (rather than instantaneous or local) potential temperature and salinity. They will move off this surface in a process called thermobaricity. For example, stirring by mesoscale eddies leads to a net motion of fluid across neutral surfaces. The process called cabbeling leads to the same result of moving fluid across neutral surface, although by mixing at the molecular level rather than by stirring.
Industry:Earth science
A phenomena wherein coral reefs bleach as a result of high temperatures or other environmental stresses, e.g. pollution episodes. Observations indicate that since 1979 bleaching episodes have coincided with El Nino war events and suggest that the scale of bleaching since 1979 is unprecedented since 1870.
Industry:Earth science
A phenomenon caused by a thin layer of fresh meltwater overlaying an otherwise salty sea. It is exceptionally hard to propel a boat (by rowing or any other method) in such a situation since energy has to be expended to generate not only surface waves but also internal waves at the saltwater-freshwater interface. Ekman (1904) first performed systematic analytical and experimental studies of this phenomenon.
Industry:Earth science
A phenomenon occurring in the wind-driven layer at the surface of the sea. In conditions of strong surface heating, a well-mixed warmer (and lighter) layer if formed, which is of limited depth because the stabilizing density distribution inhibits vertical mixing with the deeper, colder water. At the bottom of this surface layer is a strong density gradient where the turbulence is suppressed and the Reynolds stresses are small. A given wind stress at the surface can thus accelerate the water to produce stronger surface currents in this case compared to an unstratified ocean. This is true because both the depth of the layer involved is smaller and the retarding stress below it is reduced. This creates the slippery sea phenomenon.
Industry:Earth science
A phenomenon that originates with a layer of cold air forming near the ground on a night with clear skies and a low pressure gradient. If the ground is sloping, the air close to the ground is colder than air at the same level but at some horizontal distance. The result is downslope gravitational flow of the colder, denser air beneath the warmer, lighter air. This occurs on the largest scale as the outflowing winds from Greenland and Antarctica. Contrast with anabatic wind.
Industry:Earth science
A phenomenon wherein the evaporation of water from saturated air (when, for example, it mixes with drier air) cools the air due to the absorption of latent heat.
Industry:Earth science
