HOPKINS GLOSSARY OF WEATHER TERMS S

scalar

• Any quantity that can be described sufficiently by its magnitude; compare with a vector quantity. Examples of scalar quantities include temperature and air pressure.

sounder mode

• See image mode.

sensor

• The component of an instrument that converts the input signal into a useable output signal.

signal

slant range

• The direct line-of-sight distance between two objects not necessarily at the same altitude; compare with horizontal range .

sounder mode

• The process that the radiometer sensors onboard a geosynchronous satellite samples the air temperature at various levels of the atmosphere, based upon the amount of infrared radiation that is emitted from that level. Contrast with the image (or scanning) mode.

sounding

• Any probe of the environment made to obtain information at various levels. In meteorology, the term often is used synonymously with measurement of atmospheric conditions aloft (upper-air observation) made by a radiosonde, but may also include those made by a dropsonde, meteorological rocket or satellite sounder. The term also refers to the plot of temperature, dewpoint and wind measurements on a thermodynamic diagramor other graph with temperature as the horizontal axis (dependent variable) and pressure as the vertical axis (independent variable).

sun synchronous satellite