| Section C | C index | 71-79 of 1157 terms |
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capillary water—Water held in the smaller pores of a soil, generally at tensions greater than 60 cm of water.
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capillary wave—(Also called ripple, capillary ripple.) A wave for which the primary restoring force is surface tension; generally taken to be one of less than 1.7-cm wavelength, this being the wavelength for which the theoretical phase speed is a minimum, and marking the transition from gravity to surface tension as the dominant restoring force at the sea surface. Compare gravity wave.
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capped column—A form of ice crystal consisting of a hexagonal column with plate crystals or stellar crystals at its ends and sometimes at intermediate positions. The caps are perpendicular to the column and form as the crystal enters regions where change of air temperature leads to change in crystal structure from column to plate.
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CAPPI—(Abbreviation for constant-altitude plan position indicator.) A composite radar display constructed by assembling radar data from many PPIs at successive elevation angles to obtain the pattern of the data at a specified constant altitude.
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capping inversion—A statically stable layer at the top of the atmospheric boundary layer. Although the word “inversion” implies that temperature increases with height, the word “capping inversion” is used more loosely for any stable layer (potential temperature increasing with height) at the top of the boundary layer. This inversion is a ubiquitous feature of the atmospheric boundary layer, formed because the troposphere is statically stable on the average, and because turbulence homogenizes air within the boundary layer, which by conservation of heat requires that a stable layer form at the top of the boundary layer. This inversion traps surface-induced turbulence and air pollutants below it, and causes the free atmosphere to not “feel” the earth's surface during fair weather (i.e., no drag, free slip, no heat or moisture from the surface, and winds are nearly geostrophic). See lid.
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