Earth Observatory Glossary
(Starting with "L")
By
NASA,
Program Manager: David Herring,
Responsible NASA official: Dr. Michael D. King,
U.S.A.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Library/glossary.php3?mode=all
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La Niña |
A period of stronger-than-normal trade winds and unusually low sea-surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean; the opposite of El Niño. See La Niña fact sheet. |
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lahar |
A lahar is defined as a rock-laden flood made up of 40 percent or more by weight volcanic debris. A lahar flows like wet concrete and is very fast, outstripping a normal water-only flow. Lahars have been clocked at 65 kilometers per hour (40 mph). See When Rivers of Rock Flow |
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lake |
A body of fresh or salt water entirely surrounded by land. |
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land breeze |
A nocturnal coastal breeze that blows from land to sea. In the evening the water may be warmer than the land, causing pressure differences. The land breeze is the flow of air from land to sea equalizing these pressure differences. See sea breeze. |
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land cover |
The characteristics of a land surface as determined by its spectral signature (the unique way in which a given type of land cover reflects and absorbs light). |
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Landsat |
Land Remote-Sensing Satellite, operated by the U.S. Earth Observation Satellite Company (EOSAT). Commercialized under the Land Remote-Sensing Commercialization Act of 1984, Landsat is a series of satellites (formerly called ERTS) designed to gather data on the Earth's resources in a regular and systematic manner. Objectives of the mission are: land use inventory, geological/mineralogical exploration, crop and forestry assessment, and cartography.
Restructured Federal agency responsibilities for the Landsat program are effective for the acquisition and operation of Landsat 7. New operating policy specifies that NOAA will be responsible for satellites after they are placed in orbit, NASA will be responsible for the development and launch of Landsat 7, and that the U.S. government will provide unenhanced data to users at no cost beyond the cost of fulfilling their data request. |
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Langley Research Center (LaRC) |
Oldest of NASA's field centers, LaRC is located in Hampton, Virginia, and focuses primarily on aeronautical research. Established in 1917 by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the Center currently devotes two-thirds of its programs to aeronautics, and the rest to space. LaRC researchers use more than 40 wind tunnels to study improved aircraft and spacecraft safety, performance, and efficiency. LaRC Web Site |
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laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) |
Active instrument that produces discretely coherent pulses of light (light waves with no phase differences, or with predictable phases differences, are said to be coherent). |
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laser ranging |
The use of lasers to measure distances. |
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latent heat |
The heat that is either released or absorbed by a unit mass of a substance when it undergoes a change of state, such as during evaporation, condensation, or sublimation. |
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latitude (aka the geodetic latitude) |
The angle between a perpendicular at a location, and the equatorial plane of the Earth. |
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leaf area index (LAI) |
The area of foliage per unit area of ground. Conventionally this refers to the ratio of the area of the upper side of the leaves in a canopy projected onto a flat surface to the area of the surface under the canopy. Occasionally this has been used in reference to both sides of the leaves. |
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legend |
A listing that contains symbols and other information about a map. |
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lidar |
Acronym for 'Light Detection and Ranging,' a technique for performing accurate remote measurements of atmospheric trace gas concentration over ranges of several meters to tens of kilometers. This is done by probing the absorption lines of the gases with narrow spectral laser radiation using the differential absorption lidar technique. |
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light |
1. Form of radiant energy that acts upon the retina of the eye, optic nerve, etc., making sight possible. This energy is transmitted at a velocity of about 186,000 miles per second by wavelike or vibrational motion.
2. A form of radiant energy similar to this, but not acting on the normal retina, such as ultraviolet and infrared radiation.
Interplay between light rays and the atmosphere cause us to see the sky as blue, and can result in such phenomena as glows, halos, arcs, flashes, and streamers. |
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lightning |
A discharge of atmospheric electricity accompanied by a vivid flash of light. During thunderstorms, static electricity builds up within the clouds. A positive charge builds in the upper part of the cloud, while a large negative charge builds in the lower portion. When the difference between the positive and negative charges becomes great, the electrical charge jumps from one area to another, creating a lightning bolt. Most lightning bolts strike from one cloud to another, but they also can strike the ground. These bolts occur when positive charges build up on the ground. A negative charge called the 'faintly luminous streamer' or 'leader' flows from the cloud toward the ground. Then a positively charged leader, called the return stroke, leaves the ground and runs into the cloud. What is seen as a lightning bolt is actually a series of downward-striking leaders and upward-striking return strokes, all taking place in less than a second.
Lightning bolts can heat the air to temperatures hotter than the surface of the sun. This burst of heat makes the air around the bolt expand explosively, producing the sound we hear as thunder. Since light travels a million times faster than sound, we see lightning bolts before we hear their thunderclaps. By counting the seconds between a flash of lightning and the thunderclap and dividing by five, we can determine the approximate number of miles to the lightning stroke. |
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Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) |
A small, highly sophisticated instrument that detects and locates lightning over the tropical region of the globe. Looking down from a vantage point aboard the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) observatory, 218 miles (350 kilometers) above the Earth, the sensor is providing information that could lead to future advanced lightning sensors capable of significantly improving weather "nowcasting." The Lightning Imaging Sensor is three times more sensitive than a predecessor instrument known as the Optical Transient Detector. The LIS will study both day and night cloud-to-ground, cloud-to-cloud and intra-cloud lightning and its distribution around the globe. See LIS web site |
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lithosphere |
The component of the Earth's surface comprising the rock, soil, and sediments. It is a relatively passive component of the climate system, and its physical characteristics are treated as fixed elements in the determination of climate. |
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Little Ice Age |
A cold period that lasted from about A.D. 1550 to about A.D. 1850 in Europe, North America, and Asia. This period was marked by rapid expansion of mountain glaciers, especially in the Alps, Norway, Ireland, and Alaska. There were three maxima, beginning about 1650, about 1770, and 1850, each separated by slight warming intervals. |
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longitude |
The angular distance from the Greenwich meridian (0 degree), along the equator. This can be measured either east or west to the 180th meridian (180 degrees) or 0 degree to 360 degrees W. |
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longwave radiation |
The radiation emitted in the spectral wavelength greater than 4 micrometers corresponding to the radiation emitted from the Earth and atmosphere. It is sometimes referred to as 'terrestrial radiation' or 'infrared radiation,' although somewhat imprecisely. |
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low or low-pressure system |
A horizontal area where the atmospheric pressure is less than it is in adjacent areas. Since air always moves from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure, air from these adjacent areas of higher pressure will move toward the low pressure area to equalize the pressure. This inflow of air toward the low will be affected by the Earth's rotation (see Coriolis force) and will cause the air to spiral inward in a counterclockwise direction in the northern hemisphere. The air eventually rises near the center of the low, causing cloudiness and precipitation.
The air in a low rotates in a counterclockwise direction in the Northern Hemisphere, and in a clockwise direction in the Southern Hemisphere. Low-pressure cells are called cyclones. |
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