Dictionary

sferics en · NOUN

Etymology

From atmospherics.

Meanings

1. (plural, plural-only) Electromagnetic pulses caused by atmospheric phenomena, such as lightning. plural of sferic
   • Sferics are classified normally by the frequency of the receiver used to detect them. 1998, Donald R. MacGorman, W. David Rust, The Electrical Nature of Storms:
   • A Sferics Locating System has been developed to determine the geographical location of lightning strokes... 1920: Wilbur H. Paulsen (American Meteorological Society pub.), Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society http://books.google.com/books?vid=0myaFW4os6gDX0JMkJ&id=_IEOAAAAIAAJ&q=sferics&dq=sferics&pgis=1
   • ...an artificial sferics generator was used as a known source of EM pulses. 1965 (pub.): Mitre Corporation, Research & Experimentation 1960-1964 http://books.google.com/books?vid=0womdjATmZ-KMq2Hz5&id=KqTvgTb9FlAC&q=sferics&dq=sferics&pgis=1
   • The second common theoretical approach of the propagation of sferics involves viewing the Earth-ionosphere cavity as a waveguide... 2003: Rakov, Vladimir A. Rakov, Martin A. Uman, Lightning: Physics and Effects http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0521583276&id=NviMsvVOHJ4C&pg=PA446&lpg=PA446&dq=sferics&sig=X0H-Fg7yaFTa7xnvGjFpMCvXmXM#PPA446,M1
   • This circuit generates a bipolar pulse waveform that closely approximates the main features of sferics. 1999, Rudolf F. Graf, William Sheets, The Encyclopedia of Electronic Circuits:
   • 1987: Barbara Tufty, 1001 Questions Answered About Hurricanes, Tornadoes and Other Natural Air Disasters http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0486254550&id=LpVoN0gmVKcC&pg=RA2-PA38&lpg=RA2-PA38&dq=sferics&sig=BapiarKgnm1NVr9NDBl1Xcgtp-A Researchers have thought that possibly these sferics could be used to track hurricanes—but so far, they have been only marginally successful.
2. (form-of, plural) plural of sferic
   form of sferic
3. (plural, plural-only) Radio interference caused by sferics; atmospherics.
   • In the identification of sources of short whistlers, the spectral characteristics of the sferics can often be used to establish many sferics as doubtful... 1959, D. L. Carpenter, Identification of Whistler Sources on Visual Records and a Method of Routine Whistler Analysis:
   • As it turned out, the whistler was only the first of a family of sferics whose taxonomy was to include clicks, hooks, risers, nose-whistlers and one like a warbling of birds called the dawn chorus.... 1963, Thomas Pynchon, V.:

Forms