Crossword clues for brownout
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
brownout \brown"out\ n.
-
darkness resulting from the extinction of lights (as in a city invisible to enemy aircraft).
Syn: blackout, dimout.
a partial reduction in the amount of electric power available to customers in a region, such as by reduction of voltage or selective cutoff of certain customers; -- it occurs for example in summer when the demand for electricity for air-conditioning exceeds the supply, or when power to certain customers is cut off by a severe storm. It is contrasted with blackout, which is the total loss of electrical power in a region.
Wiktionary
n. 1 A period of low alternating current line voltage, causing a reduction in illumination 2 temporary dimming of vision, usually with a brown hue and accompanied by loss of peripheral vision or tunnel vision. 3 temporary closing of a fire station, usually due to budget restrictions. 4 a power outage during the day; distinguished from a blackout, which occurs at night
WordNet
Wikipedia
Brownout may refer to:
- Brownout (electricity), drop in voltage in an electrical power supply, so named because it typically causes lights to dim
- Brownout (aviation), reduced flight visibility due to airborne particles, especially from helicopter downwash
- Brownout (album), studio album by American band Head Set
A brownout is an intentional or unintentional drop in voltage in an electrical power supply system. Intentional brownouts are used for load reduction in an emergency. The reduction lasts for minutes or hours, as opposed to short-term voltage sag (or dip). The term brownout comes from the dimming experienced by incandescent lighting when the voltage sags. A voltage reduction may be an effect of disruption of an electrical grid, or may occasionally be imposed in an effort to reduce load and prevent a power outage, known as a blackout.
In some media reports the term brownout refers to an intentional or unintentional power outage or blackout of some areas rather than to a drop in voltage.
In aviation, a brownout (or brown-out) is an in-flight visibility restriction due to dust or sand in the air. In a brownout, the pilot cannot see nearby objects which provide the outside visual references necessary to control the aircraft near the ground. This can cause spatial disorientation and loss of situational awareness leading to an accident. Pilots have compared landing during brownouts to parallel parking an automobile with one's eyes closed.
The brownout phenomenon causes accidents during helicopter landing and take-off operations in arid desert terrain. Intense, blinding dust clouds stirred up by the helicopter rotor downwash during near-ground flight causes significant flight safety risks from aircraft and ground obstacle collisions, and dynamic rollover due to sloped and uneven terrain. Brownouts have claimed more helicopters in recent military operations than all other threats combined.
There are several factors which affect the probability and severity of brownout:
- rotor disk loading
- rotor configuration
- soil composition
- wind
- approach speed and angle
Countermeasures to prevent brownout-related accidents include:
- Site preparation
- Pilot technique
- Synthetic vision systems also known as "see and remember"
- Upgraded horizontal situation indicator with improved symbology
- Aerodynamics such as the "winged rotor" on the AgustaWestland EH101
- Non-visual displays of position and orientation data derived from suitable sensors, such as Tactile Situational Awareness Systems (TSAS) providing information to the pilot through the sense of touch using tactors.
'Brownout ' is the only studio album of American band Head Set.
Usage examples of "brownout".
While California was experiencing rolling brownouts a few years ago, liberals steadfastly objected to building more power plants on the grounds that it would ruin the aesthetic of their hot tub lifestyles.
Ops main lighting, and the little shudder of brownouts that swept through half the surrounding panels.
Thus, if a brownout was not sufficient, the last resort was load shedding -committing large areas to total blackout.
The diverse demands and unforeseen surges of the day, in tandem with tonight's elevated blood alcohol levels, have driven her circuitry into a sputtering staticky condition near brownout or worse, she's phasing eccentrically in and out, her attention temporarily and fiercely magnetized by the oddest fragments of isolated fact, so while Gerri natters on, from bats and sex and reincarnation to -- working hard now to amuse her audience -- stale crowd-pleasers of lust and gaucherie among her wealthy clientele, Rho is pleasantly tuned to the resonant sound of hissing meat.
On the geographical display, the brownout spelled out an insult to the chairman's mother.
But fleetwide arrays logged signal deviance similar to the brownout incident, just prior to the neural event that seems to have taken out the surface elements.
A brownout was decreed: Consolidated Edison's coalpowered electricity-generating facilities alone used up nine hundred gallons of water for every kilowatt hour of energy produced.