Glossary of Terms and Acronyms - W - Z

WATER VAPOR

Gassious form of water.

WATER VAPOR PROBE

The Nevzorov (a type of water vapor probe) probe is a so-called hot-wire device. Two resistors are heated to evaporate all particles that touch their surface during the flight. Due to their shape they are able to catch small droplets or droplets and ice crystals. The amount of energy necessary to evaporate particles is a direct measure of the liquid water content (rectangular sensor) and the total water content (cone), respectively.

WATER VAPOR PROFILES

A profile is defined as a graph of the value of a scalar quantity versus a horizontal, vertical, or time scale. It usually refers to a vertical representation.

WATER VAPOR TENDENCY

The rate of change in water wapor over a specified period (e.g., 3 hours).

WATERSHED CHARACTERISTICS

Parameters such as main channel slope, stream length, basin elevation, surface storage area of lakes, percent of contributing drainage area of ponds, swamps, and lakes, and mean annual precipitation used in water resource studies.

WATSTORE

USGS National Water Storage and Retrieval System: an extensive database of surface-water data, including streamflow information and watershed characteristics.

WEATHER BALLOON

A non-permeable, inflatable membrane made of a light material, filled with a gas lighter than air, designed to rise or float in the atmosphere.

WENTZ

SSM/I data processed by Remote Sensing Systems

WETLAND DISTRIBUTION

Identification of lands transitional between terrestrial and aquatic systems where the water table is usually at or near the surface or the land is covered by shallow water.

WETNET

A passive microwave(SSM/I) research project investigating the feasibility of conducting scientific research with a network connected distributed database.

WIND PROFILER

The term applied to Doppler radars operating in the VHF-UHF band (30MHz-3GHz) that determine the wind by measuring the line-of-sight doppler shift of scattered signals from refractive index fluctations caused by turbulence.

WIND PROFILES

A graph of the value of a scalar quantity (e.g. direction and/or speed) versus a horizontal, vertical or timescale of wind.

WIND SPEED/DIRECTION

The distance a parcel of air travels per unit time at constant pressure is the speed, and the true direction in degrees measured from north from which it travels is the direction.

WSR-57S

An S-band weather radar which was operated by the National Weather Service starting in 1957. No WSR-57S radars are currently operational with the NWS.

WSR-74C

A C-band weather radar which was operated by the national Weather Service starting in 1974 ending in 1997.

WSR-88D

An S-band Doppler weather radar currently operated by the National Weather Service.

X-POW

Doppler scanning radar operating in the X-band at -9.3 GHz.with horizontal and vertical polarization. Used for detection and detailing surface rainfall rate and precipitation classification fields, 3D precipitation microphysical retrievals including water/frozen hydrometeor contents and drop size distribution profiles.

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