Microclimate (redirected from Micro-climate)

microclimate

Climatic condition in a relatively small area, within a few feet above and below the Earth's surface and within canopies of vegetation. Microclimates are affected by such factors as temperature, humidity, wind and turbulence, dew, frost, heat balance, evaporation, the nature of the soil and vegetation, the local topography, latitude, elevation, and season. Weather and climate are sometimes influenced by microclimatic conditions, especially by variations in surface characteristics.

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microclimate [¦mī·krō′klī·mət]

(climatology)

The local, rather uniform climate of a specific place or habitat, compared with the climate of the entire area of which it is a part.

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Microclimate 

climate of the ground layer of air resulting from small-scale differences in the earth’s surface within a local climate. For example, a distinction is made in the local climate of a forest area between the microclimate of forest glades and the edges of forests and in the local climate of a city between the microclimate of squares, side streets, public gardens, and yards. Differences in the microclimate diminish rapidly with distance from the earth’s surface. They are also largely dependent on the weather, increasing in fair, calm weather and leveling out in overcast weather, in the absence of insolation, and when it is windy. Study of the microclimate requires the organization of a dense network of random meteorological observations and the comparison of these observations with the readings of a permanent basic weather station characterizing the corresponding local climate. Microclimatic surveys from motor vehicles are widely used. The peculiarities of the microclimate must be taken into account when positioning crops or moving them into new areas, when engaging in various types of land reclamation, in industrial and civilian construction, and so forth.

REFERENCES

Sapozhnikova, S. A. Mikroklimat i mestnyi klimat. Leningrad, 1950.
Geiger, R. Klimat prizemnogo sloia vozdukha. [2nd ed.] Moscow, 1960. (Translated from English.)
Mikroklimat SSSR. Leningrad, 1967.

S. P. KHROMOV