Microscale meteorology or micrometeorology is the study of short-lived
atmospheric
An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A s ...
phenomena smaller than
mesoscale, about or less. These two branches of
meteorology
Meteorology is a branch of the atmospheric sciences (which include atmospheric chemistry and physics) with a major focus on weather forecasting. The study of meteorology dates back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did no ...
are sometimes grouped together as "mesoscale and microscale meteorology" (MMM) and together study all phenomena smaller than
synoptic scale; that is they study features generally too small to be depicted on a standard
weather map
A weather map, also known as synoptic weather chart, displays various meteorological features across a particular area at a particular point in time and has various symbols which all have specific meanings. Such maps have been in use since the mi ...
. These include small and generally fleeting cloud "puffs" and other small cloud features.
Microscale meteorology controls the most important mixing and dilution processes in the atmosphere.
Important topics in microscale meteorology include
heat transfer
Heat transfer is a discipline of thermal engineering that concerns the generation, use, conversion, and exchange of thermal energy (heat) between physical systems. Heat transfer is classified into various mechanisms, such as thermal conduction ...
and
gas exchange
Gas exchange is the physical process by which gases move passively by diffusion across a surface. For example, this surface might be the air/water interface of a water body, the surface of a gas bubble in a liquid, a gas-permeable membrane, or a ...
between soil, vegetation, and/or surface water and the atmosphere caused by near-ground
turbulence
In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is fluid motion characterized by chaotic changes in pressure and flow velocity. It is in contrast to a laminar flow, which occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers, with no disruption between ...
. Measuring these transport processes involves use of micrometeorological (or flux) towers. Variables often measured or derived include net
radiation
In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or through a material medium. This includes:
* ''electromagnetic radiation'', such as radio waves, microwaves, infrared, vi ...
,
sensible heat flux,
latent heat flux, ground heat storage, and fluxes of
trace gases important to the
atmosphere
An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. ...
,
biosphere
The biosphere (from Greek βίος ''bíos'' "life" and σφαῖρα ''sphaira'' "sphere"), also known as the ecosphere (from Greek οἶκος ''oîkos'' "environment" and σφαῖρα), is the worldwide sum of all ecosystems. It can also be ...
, and
hydrosphere.
A micronet is an atmospheric and/or
environmental observation network, composed of
automated
Automation describes a wide range of technologies that reduce human intervention in processes, namely by predetermining decision criteria, subprocess relationships, and related actions, as well as embodying those predeterminations in machines ...
weather station
A weather station is a facility, either on land or sea, with instruments and equipment for measuring atmospheric conditions to provide information for weather forecasts and to study the weather and climate. The measurements taken include tempera ...
s, used to monitor microscale phenomena. Micronets are sometimes considered a subtype of
mesonet, and many micronets are a denser spatial resolution sub-network of a mesonet.
See also
*
Eddy covariance
*
FLUXNET
*
Microscale and macroscale models
*
Misoscale meteorology
*
Spatial scale
Spatial scale is a specific application of the term scale for describing or categorizing (e.g. into orders of magnitude) the size of a space (hence ''spatial''), or the extent of it at which a phenomenon or process occurs.
For instance, in phy ...
*
Surface weather analysis
Surface weather analysis is a special type of weather map that provides a view of weather elements over a geographical area at a specified time based on information from ground-based weather stations.
Weather maps are created by plotting or tr ...
*
Wind engineering
Wind engineering is a subset of mechanical engineering, structural engineering, meteorology, and applied physics that analyzes the effects of wind in the natural and the built environment and studies the possible damage, inconvenience or benefits ...
References
;Bibliography
*
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