Definitions:

• AVHRR: The Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer is a five channel radiometer flown on the polar orbiting satellites. The visible and infrared detectors are primarily used to study cloud cover and surface properties such as temperature and vegetation cover.
• Conduction: The transfer of heat during collisions among molecules. Heat is transferred from warm objects to cold ones, the rate is proportional to their temperature difference and their heat conductivity.
• Convection: The transfer of heat by large movements of a gas or liquid.
• Electromagnetic Energy: Energy that is propagated by electric and magnetic fields. Matter is not required to transfer of this type of energy known also as radiant energy.
• Evaporative Cooling: Energy is required to change the phase of water from a liquid to a solid, which results in a cooling of the surrounding environment.
• GOES: Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite.
• GOES 8: NOAA's geostationary satellite launched in April 1994. GOES 8 is part of a series of new geostationary satellites designed to improve weather forecasts and severe weather warnings and watches.
• Heat Capacity: The ratio of the amount of heat energy absorbed to the substance's temperature increase.
• Heat Conductivity: Describes a material's ability to transfer heat via conduction.
• Infrared Radiation: Electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength between 3.5 and 500 microns. Remote-sensing instruments work by measuring the radiation emitted by objects in this spectral bandpass.
• Isobar: A line on a weather map joining places of equal barometric pressure.
• Land Breeze: A surface wind blowing from the land toward the sea during the night.
• Millibar (mb): A common unit used for measuring atmospheric pressure. The average sea level pressure is approximately 1013 mb, or 29.92 inches of mercury.
• Pressure Gradient: The rate of change of pressure over a horizontal distance.
• Pressure Gradient Force: A force due to differences in pressure over some horizontal distance. It acts from high to low pressure and is directly proportional to the pressure gradient.
• Sea Breeze: A surface wind blowing from the sea towards the land, usually during the day.
• Specific Heat: The amount of heat needed to warm 1 gram of a substance 1C at sea-level pressure.
• Synoptic Scale Circulation: Weather phenomena whose spatial scale is similar in size to continents and oceans. Examples include fronts, cyclones and anticylones.
• Thermal Low: An area of low pressure created by large surface heating.
• Thermal Circulation: A local or regional circulation system that develops due to pressure gradients created by differences in surface heating.
• UV: Ultraviolet radiation with a wavelength ranging between 0.2 and 0.4 microns.
• Urban Heat Island: Terminology used to describe the fact that city temperatures are often warmer that the surrounding region.
• Vapor Pressure: The partial pressure exerted by water vapor.
• Wavelength: The distance between two consecutive crests, or troughs, of a wave.