Glossary of Terms


All complex subjects have their own terminology that sometimes makes it hard for new people to break into the field. This sometimes includes uncommon words, but more often than not a subject will have very specific meanings for common words - the discussion of errors vs mistakes in this video is a good example of this.

This glossary is a reference of some of the uncommon terms and specific definitions of more common words that you will encounter throughout Data Tree and your broader dealings with data. 

Many of these definitions come from the course materials and experts that helped develop Data Tree. Others come from the CASRAI Dictionary. Those definitions are kindly made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.



Browse the glossary using this index

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W

Weather

Specific atmospheric conditions around us which can change minute-by-minute, day-to-day.

Weather forecast

A prediction of specific future weather conditions, such as daily maximum temperature at a location, up to several days ahead, with the estimate frequently becoming more uncertain with increasing lead-time. Weather forecasts are often based on computer simulations of the atmosphere known as NWP, Numerical Weather Prediction.

Weather observation

Also known as a weather report, is a snapshot of the weather conditions at a certain location and at a certain time. An observation may be as basic as an air temperature reading but can include wind speed and direction, visibility, humidity, precipitation, cloud cover or soil surface temperature. A long-term average of a location's weather observations e.g. 30 years, determines the location's climate.