An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
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A layer of fluid that is formed wherever a fluid flows past a solid surface and the effects of → viscosity are important. The boundary level forms because as the fluid moves past the object, the molecules which are in direct contact with the surface stick to the surface. The molecules just above the surface are slowed down in their collisions with the molecules sticking to the surface. These molecules in turn slow down the flow just above them, but less effectively. This creates a thin layer of fluid near the surface in which the velocity changes from zero at the surface to the free stream value away from the surface. The boundary layer may be either → laminar or → turbulent in character, depending on the value of the → Reynolds number. The concept of boundary level was first put forward by Ludwig Prandlt (1875-1953) in 1904.

→ boundary; → layer.

In the → software architecture, the code that deals with reading from or writing to the data store, hiding its nature and complexity.

→ data; → access; → layer.

The region of a semiconductor in which the density of mobile carriers is too low to neutralize the fixed charge density of donors and acceptors.

→ depletion; → layer.

A kind of viscous → boundary layer in a rotating fluid system. Such a layer forms over a flat bottom that exerts a frictional → stress against the flow, bringing the velocity gradually to zero within the layer above the bottom. An Ekman layer occurs also on the fluid surface whenever there is a horizontal frictional stress, for example along ocean surface, when waters are subject to wind stress.

Named for Vagn Walfrid Ekman (1874-1954), Swedish oceanographer, who studied the phenomenon originally in his doctoral thesis (1902) and later developed it (1905, 1906); → layer.

The thickness of material required to reduce the intensity of an → X-ray beam to one half of its initial value. The HVL is an indirect measure of the photon energies of a beam.

→ half; → value; → layer; → attenuation.

→ Kennelly-Heaviside layer.

English physicist Oliver Heaviside (1850-1925).

Meteo.: The atmospheric layer in which the temperature gradient is inverted, that is increases; → inversion. The inversion layer tends to prevent the air below it from rising, thus trapping any pollutants that are present.
Electricity: A converting of direct current into alternating current.

→ inversion; → layer.

One of several layers in the Earth's ionosphere occurring at 90-150 km above the ground. It reflects medium-frequency radio waves whereby radio waves can be propagated beyond the horizon.

Named after the American electrical engineer Arthur Edwin Kennelly (1861-1939) and the English physicist Oliver Heaviside (1850-1925), who independently predicted the existence of the reflecting layer in 1902; → layer.

The thin layer of → vapor immediately adjacent to an irradiated surface. The thickness of the Knudsen layer is generally recognized to be in the order of a few → mean free paths from the surface.

Named after Danish physicist Martin Knudsen (1871-1949); → layer.

In a fluid flow, layer next to a fixed boundary. The fluid velocity is zero at the boundary but the molecular viscous stress is large because the velocity gradient normal to the wall is large. → turbulent boundary layer.

→ laminar; → boundary; → layer.

A layer in which the fluid undergoes smooth, nonturbulent flow. It is found between any surface and a turbulent layer above.

→ laminar; sublayer, from → sub- + → layer.

A thickness of some material laid on or spread over a surface.

From M.E. leyer, legger + -er. The first element from layen, leggen "to lay," from O.E. lecgan; cf. Du. leggen; Ger. legen; O.N. legja; Goth. lagjan

Lâyé "layer," from lâ, lây "fold" + -é nuance suffix of nouns.

A large area of the north polar region of Mars which is covered with alternating layers of water ice and dust. → South Polar Layered Deposits.

→ north; → polar; → layer; → deposit.

An atmospheric layer that contains a high proportion of oxygen that exists as ozone. It acts as a filtering mechanism against incoming ultraviolet radiation. It is located between the troposphere and the stratosphere, around 15 to 20 kilometers above the Earth's surface.

→ ozone; → layer.

A region of the solar atmosphere where the gradient of the field line → linkage from one boundary to another is large so that the field lines can slip-run rapidly through the → plasma. The QSL results from → magnetic reconnection without → null point.

→ quasi-; → separatrix; → layer.

A layer of relatively cool gas forming the lower part of the Sun's chromosphere, just above the photosphere, that gives rise to absorption lines in the Sun's spectrum.

Reversing verbal adj. of → reverse; → layer.

A large area of the south polar region of → Mars which is covered with layers of → water ice and → dust. The SPLD, like the NPLD, has a maximum relief relative to the surrounding terrain of ~ 3.5 km and ~ 1,000 km across. Above the SPLD lies a very thin temporary (1-10 m) cap of → carbon dioxide ice/frost that snows out in the winter and sublimates over the spring and summer seasons. It is believed that the rhythmic nature of the deposits is related to oscillations in Mars' → orbital parameters (J. J. Plaut et al., 2007, Science 316, 92).

→ south; → polar; → layer; → deposit.

In some stellar models, particularly for evolved → massive stars, such as → red supergiants, → Luminous Blue Variables, and → Wolf-Rayet stars, an outermost layer of the stellar envelope where the luminosity might exceed the → Eddington limit. This is due to the → opacity peak produced by the variation in the ionization level of hydrogen in the outer → convective envelope, beneath the surface, of very luminous stars. The opacity peak generates supra-Eddington layers and density inversion. The high opacity decreases the Eddington luminosity in these layers, possibly to fainter levels than the actual stellar luminosity. As a result, the → radiative acceleration exceeds the → gravitational acceleration leading to → mass loss enhancement (see, e.g., A. Maeder, Physics, Formation and Evolution of Rotating Stars, Springer, 2009).

→ supra-; → Eddington limit; → layer.

The layer in which the Reynolds stresses are much larger than the viscous stresses. When the → Reynolds number is sufficiently high, there is a turbulent layer adjacent to the → laminar boundary layer.

→ turbulent; → boundary; → layer.

A layer of particles in the upper Martian atmosphere that scatter and absorbs electromagnetic radiation at shorter wavelengths, making the atmosphere opaque to blue, violet, and ultraviolet light.

→ violet; → layer.