Crossword clues for microclimate
microclimate
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
n. A small, local region having a unique pattern of weather or weather effects that differ from the local climate.
Wikipedia
A microclimate is a local set of atmospheric conditions that differ from those in the surrounding areas. Because climate is a statistic, which implies spatial and temporal variation of the mean values of the describing parameters, it is clear that within a region could occur and persist in time, sets of statiscally distinct conditions, i.e., microclimates. The term may refer to areas as small as a few square meters or square feet (for example a garden bed) or as large as many square kilometers or square miles.
Microclimates exist, for example, near bodies of water which may cool the local atmosphere, or in heavy urban areas where brick, concrete, and asphalt absorb the sun's energy, heat up, and re-radiate that heat to the ambient air: the resulting urban heat island is a kind of microclimate. Microclimates can be found in most places. Another place this can occur is when the ground is made of tar or concrete; because these are man-made objects, they do not take in much heat, but mainly reradiate it.
Another contributing factor of microclimate is the slope or aspect of an area. South-facing slopes in the Northern Hemisphere and north-facing slopes in the Southern Hemisphere are exposed to more direct sunlight than opposite slopes and are therefore warmer for longer periods of time, giving the slope a warmer microclimate than the areas around the slope.
Usage examples of "microclimate".
With the primitive microclimate generators just beginning to emerge from the orbital factories of Domino Valparaiso, they woke the slumbering ecology and shook it rudely.
A dozen miles away, in another spiritual microclimate, there might be nothing exceptional.
A few miles further on, in yet another spiritual microclimate, we might find a spate of evil sprites in the form of bats, living only for a day, perhaps, but doing damage to whoever was so unfortunate as to encounter them.
The cupped hand of rock was already a microclimate, tilted to the sun, slightly sheltered from the winds.
We've deduced by the growth of the lichens at the foot of the walls that he built this place about a hundred years ago, and since many of the plants that grow in the valley have been genetically tailored to our climate of geothermic heat and low light--even to the microclimates of high acidity down in the more active lower end of the valley--we assume he was an ecologist and scientist of considerable skill.
He gestured up toward the green-hung dome visible high above the roofless walls, the town hidden within the mist, the varying microclimates of hot springs, warm springs, and mud pots that ranged up and down the vent.
The microclimates formed in the roots mostly consisted of hot, almost boiling hot it seemed, water that stank to high heaven from decay.
On hands and knees, she hunted through forests of fern and deltas of mud, through rough, brushy swales and rocky, wind-scrubbed ridges, microclimates in which she discovered a wealth of flora and fauna, but no books.
The brain provided for this by allowing him to exercise some control over the microclimates set up by the hive's barrier shield.
At present--before the accident--it was felt the best use of waste heat was in the creation of microclimates around the domes, to be reservoirs for the next wave of higher biota.
The short stocky Carthaginian was foaming at the mouth as he swung his sword like a buzz-saw gone berserk, and the force of his swings created microclimates that boiled up into tiny whirlwinds before being absorbed into the torpor of the quiet Tsurisian landscape.
At present—before the accident—it was felt the best use of waste heat was in the creation of microclimates around the domes, to be reservoirs for the next wave of higher biota.