- 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 ...
A process that results in a species having a higher (more positive) oxidation state, that is, the net loss of electrons from an atom. Quite often oxygen is involved in the oxidation of another atom; therefore it is an oxidant. ,
Industry:Chemistry; Weather
A proportionality describing the light energy reflected by a surface; in atmospheric content the reflector includes things like the surface of the earth or particles in the atmosphere. Also see albedo.
Industry:Chemistry; Weather
A radioactive element found in the actinide series on the periodic table. It has the chemical symbol of U, standard atomic weight of 238. 02891 and 92 protons. This element is useful producing energy needed to power cities and regions of countries. The fissionable isotope of uranium is uranium-235. Scientist discovered that this isotope could be induced to release energy when a thermal (slow) neutron strikes this isotope's nucleus producing smaller mass fragments, additional neutrons, and energy that stemmed from mass from those reactants converted to energy, the so-called mass defect. Nuclear plants were built to house this process beginning in the early 1950s. This process of splitting atoms is called fission.
Industry:Chemistry; Weather
A reaction containing three particles. In the atmosphere an example of a termolecular reaction is one in which a molecule acquires the excess energy released by a reaction so that the products created do not convert back to the original state of the reactants. The reaction of molecular oxygen with an oxygen atom (radical) to produce ozone is a good example of an important atmospheric termolecular reaction. In the atmosphere this third body is most often molecular nitrogen because statistically this is the most likely next collision since atmospheric N<sub>2</sub> is 78% by volume in the earth's atmosphere.
Industry:Chemistry; Weather
A reaction in which an element is oxidized and reduced. This is how stable molecules are made from radicals.
Industry:Chemistry; Weather
A reaction that takes any atom away from another chemical species. Classical examples in atmospheric chemistry are the gas phase removal of hydrogen from methane by hydroxyl radical or the following solution phase reaction:
HSO<sub>3</sub><sup>-</sup> + H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> ---> HSO<sub>4</sub><sup>-</sup> + H<sub>2</sub>O
Industry:Chemistry; Weather
A satellite deployed by NASA to study the chemistry in the upper atmosphere of Earth.
Industry:Chemistry; Weather
A short-lived, high amplitude discharge of electricity that accompanies a cloud-to-ground lightning event. The bright lightning flash that is visible to the human eye is actually composed of extremely rapid electric discharges called strokes. The return stoke follows a downward extending leader, or conductive path of ionized air. The electrons in the cloud flow down this conductive pathway toward the surface of the earth. As electrons continually migrate down the path, electrons remaining higher up on the path in the cloud begin to consecutively move down the channel to the surface. Since the path of electron flow is progressively lengthened upward, the discharge of the elevated electrons high in the cloud to a lower place in the cloud and then down the pathway to the ground is called the return stroke.
Industry:Chemistry; Weather
A slow-moving mass of ice formed in higher latitudes and elevations. When snowfall is greater than melting and the increasing amounts of snow become compacted and pressurized it forms firn (see above) and ultimately a glacier. As the glacier moves, it carries rocks and soil, and can form u-shaped valleys over geologic time. Glaciers can move at variable rates.
Industry:Chemistry; Weather
A spectrum of electromagnetic radiation containing narrow spectral lines from an element.
Industry:Chemistry; Weather