katabatic wind

[¦kad·ə¦bad·ik ′wind]

(meteorology)

katabatic wind

The cold wind that flows down the slopes of the mountains and spreads at the base of the mountains.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Katabatic Wind

a flow of cold air down relatively gentle slopes of mountain ranges, caused by the force of gravity (in contrast to the bora, which blows down steep slopes). Such winds are observed primarily at night when the ground layer of air cools. They include glacier winds, which are more intense in the summer when the air above glaciers is especially cool relative to the air above the surrounding area at the same elevation. The most severe katabatic winds occur in Antarctica, where air flows from the high continental ice cap to the shores; these winds reach high velocities near the shores but do not extend farther than 8–10 km into the ocean. The direction of katabatic winds at the antarctic shore is most frequently southeast; this is a result of the meridional component of the wind and the eastward movement of air around a continent in the course of general atmospheric circulation.

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References in periodicals archive

As mainly open-water conditions prevailed in the fjord throughout the expedition, this large ice sheet had moved into the fjord one day prior and was propelled back out across the sill by katabatic winds within 48 hours.

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Al Junaibi says: "Antarctica has a unique weather condition such as 'katabatic' winds -- 'down-slope' high-density winds that rapidly blow cold air.

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Today a latent poetry echoes in the names we use to distinguish foehn winds from gravity airflows and Katabatic winds from the Khamsin.

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As with the earlier stories, his Dark Materials books deserve to be appreciated alongside katabatic literature aimed at adults.

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Hence his katabatic mission to retrieve Teresa/Alcestis symbolizes the defeat of the triumphal violence and brutality that nourish totalitarian regimes.

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"Thanks to katabatic winds at Patriot Hills, our flights have been delayed, which gives me hope that my bags will get to me in time," he said.

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Examples of specific topics covered include aircraft electrification, airmass, anabatic wind, boundary layer, convection, Dansgaard-Oeschger event, Dobson spectrophotometer, gradient wind, katabatic wind, meteorology, noble gases, pollution control, temperature scales, waterspout, and Venturi effect.

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These features include extensive loess deposits (now supporting the farming industry in large areas of the Mississippi basin) transported by ferocious katabatic winds that formed as air flowed off the cold surfaces of glaciers, river valleys carved by water surging from glacial lakes (Lake Agassiz, Lake Duluth, etc.), flat shoreline terraces (often selected by Native American and European settlers as sites for villages and towns), and the so-called "driftless" region that escaped the last glacial ice sheets.

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Facts about the orchestra