A cold-air pool is a meteorological phenomenon that occurs when cold air becomes trapped in a low-lying area, such as a valley or basin. This typically happens during the night and early morning when the ground cools rapidly due to radiative cooling, leading to the cooling of the air near the surface. As the cooler, denser air sinks, it accumulates in these lower regions, creating a pool of cold air.
The Puget Sound Convergence Zone (PSCZ) is a meteorological phenomenon that occurs in the Puget Sound region of Washington State, particularly in areas around Seattle and northern parts of the Olympic Peninsula. It is characterized by the merging of air masses with differing temperatures and moisture levels, creating localized weather patterns. The convergence zone typically forms when southwesterly winds blow moist marine air into the region and encounter the Olympic Mountains.
The Brunt–Väisälä frequency, often denoted as \( N \), is a key concept in atmospheric and oceanic sciences that quantifies the stability of a stratified fluid, such as the atmosphere or the ocean. It measures the frequency at which a displaced parcel of fluid will oscillate if it is perturbed vertically. This frequency is dependent on the density stratification of the fluid and can be calculated from the vertical gradient of buoyancy or potential density.
Coriolis frequency refers to the frequency at which a particular oscillatory motion occurs due to the Coriolis effect, which arises from the rotation of the Earth. This is particularly significant in geophysical contexts, such as oceanography and meteorology, where the motion of fluids (like air and water) is influenced by the rotation of the Earth.
A Kelvin wave is a type of wave that occurs in a rotating fluid system, such as the ocean or the atmosphere. Named after the physicist Lord Kelvin (William Thomson), these waves are characterized by their propagation along rotating boundaries, like the equator or coastlines, and are influenced by the Coriolis effect. ### Key Features of Kelvin Waves: 1. **Wave Propagation**: Kelvin waves typically propagate along a boundary (e.g.
Blue carbon refers to the carbon captured and stored by coastal and marine ecosystems, particularly in salt marshes, mangroves, and seagrasses. These ecosystems play a crucial role in mitigating climate change by sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and storing it in biomass and sediment. Key aspects of blue carbon include: 1. **Carbon Sequestration**: Coastal ecosystems are highly efficient at capturing carbon.
The term "mountain jet" can refer to a couple of different concepts depending on the context, but most commonly it relates to meteorology. In meteorology, a "mountain jet" refers to a type of wind phenomenon that occurs in mountainous areas. It is characterized by high-velocity winds that are funneled through mountain passes, valleys, or ridges, often resulting from the pressure differences created by the topography of the mountains.
Papagayo Jet refers to a charter airline based in Costa Rica. It primarily operates flights from Liberia, Costa Rica, to various destinations within the region. Papagayo Jet specializes in offering private jet services, catering to travelers who prefer personalized and flexible flying experiences. The airline's name is derived from the Papagayo region, which is known for its beautiful beaches and tourism activities.
Q-Vectors are a type of representation used in various fields such as machine learning, natural language processing (NLP), and signal processing. The term itself can refer to different concepts depending on the context, but it often pertains to methods for encoding information in a vector space. In the context of natural language processing and machine learning, Q-Vectors can refer to an embedding or vector representation of questions. They are particularly relevant in systems that deal with question-answering, information retrieval, or conversational AI.
Scale height is a concept used in atmospheric science and astrophysics to describe the rate at which the pressure or density of an atmosphere decreases with altitude (or distance from the center of a celestial body).
Stratified flows refer to a type of fluid flow where different layers, or strata, of fluids with varying densities or compositions exist and move relative to each other. This phenomenon is commonly observed in various natural and industrial processes, such as in lakes, oceans, and oil reservoirs, as well as in pipelines where fluids of different densities are transported. Key characteristics of stratified flows include: 1. **Density Differentiation**: The fluids involved have distinct densities, leading to the formation of layers.
Women atmospheric scientists are female professionals who study the atmosphere and its processes, including weather, climate, and atmospheric phenomena. This field encompasses various sub-disciplines, such as meteorology, climatology, atmospheric chemistry, and atmospheric physics. Women in this field contribute to understanding and addressing critical issues like climate change, weather forecasting, air quality, and severe weather events. The role of women in atmospheric sciences has been increasing over the years, with more women entering and advancing in the field.
The Martin curve, named after mathematician J. L. Martin, is a concept from set theory that involves the relationships between various sizes of cardinalities, particularly in the context of the continuum hypothesis and large cardinals. The curve itself is a visual representation in a specific mathematical context, often related to the behavior of certain functions and their continuity. However, in set theory, it often refers to a construction or a result that demonstrates properties about certain sets of real numbers or functions.
Red tide refers to a harmful algal bloom (HAB) characterized by the proliferation of certain types of microalgae, particularly dinoflagellates, in coastal waters. These blooms can produce toxins that are harmful to marine life, humans, and the environment. The term "red tide" comes from the reddish or brownish color that the water can take on when these algae are present in high concentrations, although the water may not always appear red.
Critical depth is a concept in fluid mechanics, particularly in the study of open channel flow. It represents the depth of flow at which the specific energy of the system is at a minimum for a given specific discharge (flow rate per unit width). In simpler terms, for a given amount of water flowing through a channel, critical depth is the depth at which the flow transitions between subcritical and supercritical states.
A harmful algal bloom (HAB) is a rapid increase in the population of certain types of algae in aquatic environments, which can have detrimental effects on aquatic life, human health, and the environment. These blooms are often caused by specific strains of microscopic algae (phytoplankton), which can produce toxins harmful to marine organisms, birds, and mammals, as well as humans.
Anoxic events refer to periods in which specific waters, regions, or environments become depleted of oxygen, leading to severe conditions for aquatic life and other organisms that rely on oxygen for survival. "Anoxic" specifically means lacking oxygen (from the Greek "an-" meaning "without" and "oxia" meaning "oxygen").
Hypoxia, in an environmental context, refers to a condition in which there is a deficiency of oxygen in a particular area, typically in aquatic environments such as oceans, lakes, or rivers. This can lead to significant ecological impacts, affecting the survival of fish and other aquatic organisms that rely on dissolved oxygen for respiration.
An "oligosaprobe" is a term often used in microbiology and ecology to describe a specific type of organism that requires very low concentrations of organic matter to thrive. Oligosaprobic organisms typically inhabit environments with low levels of pollution and organic enrichment, such as clean streams and lakes. These organisms are contrasted with "eutrophic" organisms, which are adapted to environments rich in nutrients and organic material.
Oceanographical terminology refers to the specialized vocabulary and concepts used in the field of oceanography, which is the study of the ocean and its various components, including marine ecosystems, ocean currents, physical and chemical properties of seawater, and geological features. This terminology is essential for scientists, researchers, and professionals in the field to communicate effectively about ocean-related topics.
Pinned article: Introduction to the OurBigBook Project
Welcome to the OurBigBook Project! Our goal is to create the perfect publishing platform for STEM subjects, and get university-level students to write the best free STEM tutorials ever.
Everyone is welcome to create an account and play with the site: ourbigbook.com/go/register. We belive that students themselves can write amazing tutorials, but teachers are welcome too. You can write about anything you want, it doesn't have to be STEM or even educational. Silly test content is very welcome and you won't be penalized in any way. Just keep it legal!
Intro to OurBigBook
. Source. We have two killer features:
- topics: topics group articles by different users with the same title, e.g. here is the topic for the "Fundamental Theorem of Calculus" ourbigbook.com/go/topic/fundamental-theorem-of-calculusArticles of different users are sorted by upvote within each article page. This feature is a bit like:
- a Wikipedia where each user can have their own version of each article
- a Q&A website like Stack Overflow, where multiple people can give their views on a given topic, and the best ones are sorted by upvote. Except you don't need to wait for someone to ask first, and any topic goes, no matter how narrow or broad
This feature makes it possible for readers to find better explanations of any topic created by other writers. And it allows writers to create an explanation in a place that readers might actually find it.Figure 1. Screenshot of the "Derivative" topic page. View it live at: ourbigbook.com/go/topic/derivativeVideo 2. OurBigBook Web topics demo. Source. - local editing: you can store all your personal knowledge base content locally in a plaintext markup format that can be edited locally and published either:This way you can be sure that even if OurBigBook.com were to go down one day (which we have no plans to do as it is quite cheap to host!), your content will still be perfectly readable as a static site.
- to OurBigBook.com to get awesome multi-user features like topics and likes
- as HTML files to a static website, which you can host yourself for free on many external providers like GitHub Pages, and remain in full control
Figure 3. Visual Studio Code extension installation.Figure 4. Visual Studio Code extension tree navigation.Figure 5. Web editor. You can also edit articles on the Web editor without installing anything locally.Video 3. Edit locally and publish demo. Source. This shows editing OurBigBook Markup and publishing it using the Visual Studio Code extension.Video 4. OurBigBook Visual Studio Code extension editing and navigation demo. Source. - Infinitely deep tables of contents:
All our software is open source and hosted at: github.com/ourbigbook/ourbigbook
Further documentation can be found at: docs.ourbigbook.com
Feel free to reach our to us for any help or suggestions: docs.ourbigbook.com/#contact





