convection

Air heated by a space heater rises and is replaced by cool air, creating a convection current that circulates hot air throughout a room.

con·vec·tion

(kən-vĕk′shən)

1. The act or process of conveying; transmission.

2. Physics

a. Heat transfer in a gas or liquid by the circulation of currents from one region to another.

b. Fluid motion caused by an external force such as gravity.

3. Meteorology The transfer of heat or other atmospheric properties by massive motion within the atmosphere, especially by such motion directed upward.

[Late Latin convectiō, convectiōn-, from convectus, past participle of convehere, to carry together : Latin com-, com- + Latin vehere, to carry; see wegh- in Indo-European roots.]

con·vec′tion·al adj.

con·vec′tive adj.

con·vec′tive·ly adv.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

References in periodicals archive

The second is a fast-moving atmospheric system known as a "convectively coupled Kelvin wave" that's affected by the earth's rotation.

Sleepy Hurricane Season Could Soon Wake Up

The goal of this prediction system is to maintain the skill in large-scale features while simultaneously improving the prediction skill of convectively driven mesoscale phenomena.

TOWARD CONVECTIVE SCALE PREDICTION WITHIN THE NEXT GENERATION GLOBAL PREDICTION SYSTEM: The variable-resolution version of a Finite-Volume Cubed-Sphere Dynamical Core (FV3)-based global model improves the prediction of convective-scale features while maintaining skillful global forecasts

"Steady MHD Boundary-layer Slip Flow and Heat Transfer of Nanofluid over a Convectively Heated of a Non-linear Permeable Sheet." Journal of Advanced Mechanical Engineering 3 (1): 1-14.

Effects of slip and convective conditions on MHD flow of nanofluid over a porous nonlinear stretching/shrinking sheet

Ismail, "Scaling group transformation for MHD boundary layer slip flow of a nanofluid over a convectively heated stretching sheet with heat generation," Mathematical Problems in Engineering, vol.

Thermo-Magneto-Solutal Squeezing Flow of Nanofluid between Two Parallel Disks Embedded in a Porous Medium: Effects of Nanoparticle Geometry, Slip and Temperature Jump Conditions

The diurnal cycle of the MCSs reveals a clear nocturnal occurrence of MCSs during both convectively active periods.

Climatology and Teleconnections of Mesoscale Convective Systems in an Andean Basin in Southern Ecuador: The Case of the Paute Basin

In the lowest one, the fluid tends to be convectively unstable.

Triply Resonant Double Diffusive Convection in a Fluid Layer

Considering the cooling panel as an individual surface, heat is exchanged convectively with room air and radiantly with other inner surfaces (floor and walls).

Development of a heat transfer model for ceiling radiant cooling panels through a combined experimental and simulation study

A flow is convectively unstable if the unsteady response to an impulsive perturbation grows along some rays that pass away from the forcing location but decays at the forcing location itself.

Spatial-Temporal Instability of an Inviscid Shear Layer