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Glossary Search Results
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- Wages and Salaries
- Refers to gross wages and salaries before deductions for such items as income tax, pensions and Unemployment Insurance. Included in this source are military pay and allowances, tips, commissions and cash bonuses, as well as all types of casual earnings during calendar year 1995. The value of taxable allowances and benefits provided by employers, such as free lodging and free automobile use, is excluded. (Source: 1996 Census Dictionary, Cat. No. 92-351-XPE, Statistics Canada)
- Water equivalent
- see Snow water equivalent (SWE)
- Water quality
- A term used to describe the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water with respect to its suitability for a particular use.
- Watershed
- (1) The entire geographic region supplying water to a drainage basin, river, or lake.
(2) An area of land that drains naturally into a stream or other waterway.
- Watershed (boundary)
- A watershed is also the summit boundary between one drainage basin and another, for example, the North American Continental Divide which is the boundary between all waters flowing to the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.
- Water vapour
- The most abundant greenhouse gas, water vapour is the water present in the atmosphere in gaseous form. Water vapour is an important part of the natural greenhouse effect. While humans are not significantly increasing its concentration, water vapour contributes to the enhanced greenhouse effect because the warming influence of greenhouse gases leads to a positive water vapour feedback. In addition to its role as a natural greenhouse gas, water vapour plays an important role in regulating the temperature of the planet because clouds form when excess water vapour in the atmosphere condenses to form ice, water droplets and precipitation. (Source: Government of Canada Climate Change Site, Glossary of Climate Change Terms)
- Wave train
- Series of waves which travels fast and in the same direction.
- Weather
- The state or condition of the atmosphere prevailing at a certain place and time, with respect to heat or cold, wetness or dryness, calm or storm, and clearness or cloudiness. (Source: Government of Canada Climate Change Site, Glossary of Climate Change Terms)
- Wetlands
- Lands where water saturation is the dominant factor determining both the nature of soil development and the types of plant and animal communities living in the surrounding environment. Particular types of wetlands include bogs, ponds, estuaries, and marshes.
- Wet Sulphate Deposition
- Sulphate deposited to the earth's surface by precipitation and is an indicator of acid rain. (Source: Environment Canada)
- Wholesale
- Those service activities devoted to the distribution of goods from manufacturers and importers to retailers.
- Widowed
- Persons who have lost their spouse through death and who have not remarried. (Source: 1996 Census Dictionary, Statistics Canada)
- Wind energy generating stations
- These stations use wind-powered turbines.
- Wind packing
- The transport and fracturing of snow crystals by wind action to create a dense, cohesive snow surface layer. Requires relatively high wind speeds and exposed terrain.
- Wisconsin glaciation
- A period of glaciation covering most of the northern half of North America from about 85 000 years ago until about 7 000 years ago. It was the most recent continental glaciation.
- Workstation, computer
- Computer hardware consisting of a display monitor, keyboard and mouse usually connected to peripheral devices such as a plotter and digitizer, with the capability of producing and editing digital maps. A workstation is distinguished from a desk-top computer by the fact that any authorized user may access their own personal work environment and files which are stored on a main computer server having greater than usual processing power and speed. Several computer workstations may be networked together and be running off the same computer server.
- World Aeronautical Chart (WAC)
- A series of charts covering the World at the scale of 1:1 000 000 for the purpose of aerial navigation. WACs are used for flight planning and in-flight navigation by VFR (Visual Flight Rules) pilots on extended cross country flight at medium to high altitudes and medium to high airspeed and as a base maps for the Digital Chart of the World (DCW). Canadian coverage (18 sheets) is produced by the Aeronautical Charts Service, Geomatics Canada, Natural Resources Canada. (See DCW -Digital Chart of the World)
- Wrong-reading
- (See Image direction)
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