Backing and veering
From The Encyclopedia of Earth
March 29, 2010, 12:00 am
July 4, 2012, 4:44 pm
Backing is a term, in meteorology, that refers to an anti-clockwise change of direction of a wind with increasing altitude. The corresponding opposite term is veering. The definition of veering is a wind pattern in which the wind direction aloft changes in a clockwise direction relative to that near the Earth surface.
An alternative usage of these two terms is as follows:
- Backing to indicate wind direction at a given height is changing anti-clockwise with time
- Veering to indicate wind direction at a given height is changing clockwise with time
| This article is written at a definitional level only. Authors wishing to expand this entry are inivited to expand the present treatment, which additions will be peer reviewed prior to publication of any expansion. |
Further Reading
- C.Donald Ahrens, Peter L.Jackson, Christine E.O.Jackson. 2011. Meteorology today: An Introduction to Weather, Climate and the Environment. 611 pages
- Physical Oceanography Index
