Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Forming a layer or arranged in layers.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Forming or formed into a layer or lamella; embedded as a stratum or layer; stratified: specifically used in the anatomy of a form of cartilage.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Having the form of strata.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Occurring in layers
  • adjective meteorology Descriptive of clouds with extensive horizontal development

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin stratus ("layer") + -form

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word stratiform.

Examples

  • A stratiform cloud deck tends to persist between 2,800 m and 3,800 m.

    Mount Kenya National Park and National Forest, Kenya 2009

  • Another relevant analogue is the seasonal progression from frequently clear skies over the marine cryosphere in winter to dominance by fog and stratiform cloud in summer.

    Influence of the Arctic on global climate 2009

  • The problem, however, is that stratiform clouds are unusually delicate formations, vulnerable to the power of man, and by definition so weak that their precipitation potential is feeble.

    Weather as Weapon Langewiesche, William 2008

  • Out in the real world, the agents visibly erode simple stratiform clouds and their ground-hugging variant, fog.

    Weather as Weapon Langewiesche, William 2008

  • The exceptions are saturated stratiform clouds in narrowly bounded mountainous regions, where upsloping terrain may trigger significant precipitation, and where statistical evidence is growing that winter seeding does enhance the snowfall.

    Weather as Weapon Langewiesche, William 2008

  • Besides spreading the ocean surface with its own CO2 and residual oil, sea-going vessels create something called "Ship Tracks" that tail off, like vapor trails, in the atmosphere and have the potential for changing the microstructure of marine stratiform clouds.

    Barry Sanders: The Green Zone: The Military's Addiction To Oil 2008

  • A couple of days ago I saw, in the Southern Indian Ocean, marine stratiform clouds behind what appears to be a cold front within 10 degrees of the equator.

    Unthreaded #13 « Climate Audit 2007

  • And, critically important in the eastern Pacific, warmer SST tneds to weaken the important stratiform low-cloud cover, which reflects away sunlight nad likely has a net cooling effect on the surface.

    Unthreaded #10 « Climate Audit 2007

  • While reading about clouds this weekend I came across an estimate of global marine stratiform cloud MSC coverage.

    Unthreaded #10 « Climate Audit 2007

  • That coolness increases the marine stratiform cloudiness and that large-scale increase in low cloud cover tends to cool the earth a bit.

    Unthreaded #16 « Climate Audit 2007

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.