TIME SCALE

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does time scale mean? 

• TIME SCALE (noun)
  The noun TIME SCALE has 1 sense:

1. an arrangement of events used as a measure of duration

  Familiarity information: TIME SCALE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TIME SCALE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An arrangement of events used as a measure of duration

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Context example:

on the geological time scale mankind has existed but for a brief moment

Hypernyms ("time scale" is a kind of...):

continuance; duration (the period of time during which something continues)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "time scale"):

extended time scale; slow time scale ((simulation) the time scale used in data processing when the time-scale factor is greater than one)

fast time scale ((simulation) the time scale used in data processing when the time-scale factor is less than one)

 Context examples 

On geologic time scales (thousands to millions of years), variations in Earth's orbit are the pacemakers of the ice ages.

(Deep-sea sediments lead to new understanding of solar system, National Science Foundation)

The researchers' results, could help reveal how the climate of the North Atlantic region varies on long time scales.

(Ice cave in Transylvania yields window into region's past, NSF)

Relative time scale based on stratigraphic position and correlation, and many different types of chronologic evidence.

(Geologic time scale, NOAA Paleoclimate Glossary)

Fossil groundwater is non-renewable and won't be recharged in human time scales

(Modern pollutants can reach deep fossil aquifers, SciDev.Net)

While methane and carbon dioxide emissions following thaw lead to immediate radiative warming, carbon uptake in peat-rich sediments occurs over millennial time scales.

(Certain Arctic lakes store more greenhouse gases than they release, NSF)

The typical age of the simple craters examined by the researchers indicates they could potentially accumulate ice that was later mixed with overlying regolith over long time scales.

(The Moon and Mercury May Have Thick Ice Deposits, NASA)

The team used geologic records from deep-sea drilling cores recovered using the NSF-funded research drillship JOIDES Resolution to extend the astronomical time scale by about eight million years.

(Deep-sea sediments lead to new understanding of solar system, National Science Foundation)

The research suggests that Arctic thermokarst lakes are "net climate coolers" when observed over longer, millennial, time scales.

(Certain Arctic lakes store more greenhouse gases than they release, NSF)

However, geologists and astronomers have struggled to extend the astronomical time scale farther back than 50 million years because of solar system chaos, which has made the time scale unpredictable beyond a certain point.

(Deep-sea sediments lead to new understanding of solar system, National Science Foundation)

The ability to precisely define time scales is a fundamental challenge in geology, and these results are a big step forward in allowing scientists to understand the climate system over very long time scales, says Candace Major, a section head in NSF's Division of Ocean Sciences.

(Deep-sea sediments lead to new understanding of solar system, National Science Foundation)