Spatial scale

For other uses, see Scale (disambiguation).
Examples of scales in geography and metereology
Scale Length Area Description
Micro 1 m – 1 km 1 m2 – 1 km2 local
Meso 1 km - 100 km 1 km2 - 10,000 km2 regional
Macro 100 km - 10,000 km 10,000 km2 - 100,000,000 km2 continental
Mega > 10,000 km > 100,000,000 km2 global
This animation gives a sense of the awe-inspiring scale of some of the known objects in our universe.

In sciences such as physics, geography, astronomy, meteorology and statistics, the term scale or spatial scale is used for describing or classifying with large approximation the extent or size of a length, distance or area studied or described. For instance, in physics an object or phenomenon can be called microscopic if too small to be visible. In climatology, a micro-climate is a climate which might occur in a mountain, valley or near a lake shore, whereas in statistics a megatrend is a political, social, economical, environmental or technological trend which involves the whole planet or is supposed to last a very large amount of time.

In physics, the concept of scale is closely related to the more accurate concept of order of magnitude.

These divisions are somewhat arbitrary; where, on this table, mega- is assigned global scope, it may only apply continentally or even regionally in other contexts. The interpretations of meso- and macro- must then be adjusted accordingly.

See also

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/3/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.