sferics, n. pl. orig. U.S.
(ˈsfɛrɪks)
Also with capital initial; (rarely) spherics.
[Contraction and respelling of atmospherics n. pl.]
Atmospherics; sometimes used to denote a radio direction-finding system used to locate storms by means of the atmospherics they produce. Hence ˈsferic a., of or pertaining to sferics.
| 1945 in U.S. Army Signal Res. & Development Lab., Techn. Rep. 2199 (AD 266–795) (1961) 97 (heading) Military characteristics for automatic atmospherics (sferics) equipment. 1949 Marine Observer XIX. 199 ‘Sferic’ is the code word which has been used for some years now to designate reports of positions of areas in which thunder⁓storms are taking place. 1951 R. C. Wanta in T. F. Malone Compendium Meteorol. 1297/1 Sferics (less commonly spherics) is a contraction of the word atmospherics meaning natural electrical phenomena detected by radio methods. 1963 T. Pynchon V. ix. 230 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. 1968 B. W. Atkinson Weather Business ii. 41 Sferic fixes depend on the radiation of electromagnetic waves caused by lightning flashes in the clouds. 1974 Nature 10 May 134/2 Observers under the balloon reported no thunder or lightning; thus we attribute the spherics to an intense thunderstorm system that was over the eastern United States at the time. Ibid., Our local v.l.f. monitor recorded strong spheric activity. |