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 vapor, 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.
• Stratosphere: A region of the atmosphere that lies between the troposphere and mesosphere. The lapse rate of the stratosphere is stable, meaning the temperature is constant with altitude or increases with altitude. The top of the stratosphere is marked by the stratopause and the bottom by the tropopause. The majority of atmospheric ozone is formed in the stratosphere.
• 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.
• Troposphere: The lowest 10 to 20 km of the atmosphere. The top of the troposphere, the tropopause, is characterized by a rapid change in the lapse rate.
• 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.