Convection

{
  "id": "MLC-T-ENV-006563",
  "term": "Convection",
  "field": "Environment",
  "definition": "1. The transfer of heat energy vertically through a medium. In the atmosphere, convection may be seen visibly by cloud formation and thunderstorm development.\n\n2. The rising of warm air and the sinking of cool air. Heat mixes and moves air. When a layer of air receives enough heat from the Earth's surface, it expands and moves upward. Colder, heavier air flows under it which is then warmed, expands, and rises. The warm rising air cools as it reaches higher, cooler regions of the atmosphere and begins to sink. Convection causes local breezes, winds, and thunderstorms.\n\n3. Atmospheric or oceanic motions that are predominately vertical and that result in vertical transport and mixing of atmospheric or oceanic properties. Because the most striking meteorological features result if atmospheric convective motion occurs in conjunction with the rising current of air (i.e., updrafts), convection is sometimes used to imply only upward vertical motion.\n\n4. Vertical motion within the atmosphere due to thermal instability, with important impacts on the type cloud systems that can develop.\n\n5. Transfer of heat by fluid motion between two areas with different temperatures. In meteorology. the rising and descending air motion caused by heat. Atmospheric convection is almost always turbulent and is the dominant vertical transport process over tropical oceans and during sunny days over continents. The terms 'convection' and 'thunderstorms' are often use interchangeably. although thunderstorms are only one form of convection. In the ocean. convection is prominent in regions of high heat loss to the atmosphere and is the main mechanism for deep-water formation. .",
  "references": [
    "My NASA Data Glossary",
    "NASA Earth Observatory Glossary",
    "NASA Sustainable Development Indicators Glossary",
    "DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility Glossary",
    "NOAA Climate Program Office Glossary"
  ],
  "url": "https://mlchart.com/terminology/environment/convection/"
}