All articles A–Z
519,064 articles
Air purifier
An air purifier, also called an air cleaner, is an electric appliance that filters particles, gases, or microorganisms from the air in a single room.
Air quality index
The air quality index (AQI), also called an air pollutant index, is a standardized scale converting measured pollutant concentrations into a number, color band, and health message; the US EPA version runs from 0 to 500.
Air quality model
An air quality model is a numerical model that simulates the emission, transport, chemical transformation, and deposition of air pollutants, predicting concentrations over regions thousands of kilometers wide.
Air racing
Air racing: motorsport where airplanes race head-to-head around a closed pylon course. Began Reims 1909 (Glenn Curtiss); Reno National Championship Air Races 1964-2023; Unlimited warbirds reach 500 mph; now held in Roswell, New Mexico.
Air rage
Air rage: popular, non-legal term for disruptive or violent airline passenger behavior aboard aircraft or in terminals, coined in the 1990s; alcohol is the leading precipitant, and IATA rates incidents at one per 395 flights in 2024.
Air raid on Bari
The air raid on Bari was a German Luftwaffe attack on the Allied port of Bari, Italy, on 2 December 1943, sinking 17 ships and releasing mustard gas.
Air raids on Japan
Air raids on Japan: the 1944–1945 US B-29 bombing campaign from the Marianas, including the March 1945 Tokyo firebombing (Operation Meetinghouse, ~100,000 dead) and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Air receiver
An air receiver is an unfired pressure vessel that stores compressed air as a reservoir between the compressor and points of use in a compressed air system.
Air Rhodesia Flight 825
Air Rhodesia Flight 825 was a domestic flight shot down by ZIPRA guerrillas with a missile near Kariba, Rhodesia, on 3 September 1978, killing 48.
Air rights
Air rights, or unused development rights, are legally transferable interests in the space above land, shaped by Causby (1946), conveyed by lease, fee, or easement, and traded as TDRs in New York and Mumbai.
Air rocket
An air rocket is a non-pyrotechnic rocket launched by a burst of compressed air from a pump, stomp bladder, or compressor, with no engine; it coasts ballistically after leaving the tube.
Air sampling
Air sampling is the collection of airborne particles, gases, or bioaerosols onto filters or into liquid media, so exposure concentrations can be measured against health-based limits.
Air separation
Air separation is the industrial process of splitting ambient air into nitrogen, oxygen, and argon, chiefly by cryogenic distillation in air separation units serving steelmaking, chemicals, healthcare, and semiconductor manufacturing.
Air separation unit
An air separation unit (ASU) is an industrial facility that separates atmospheric air into oxygen, nitrogen, and argon by cooling the air until it liquefies and distilling it.
Air Serbia
Air Serbia is the national airline of Serbia, headquartered in Belgrade and flying over 100 routes across Europe, Asia, and North America since its 2013 rebranding.
Air Serbia Flight 324
Air Serbia Flight 324 was a Belgrade–Düsseldorf flight whose Embraer ERJ-195 overran the runway on takeoff at Belgrade on 18 February 2024; nobody was hurt.
Air Shakur (エアシャカール)
Air Shakur (エアシャカール), Japanese racehorse 1997-2003 by Sunday Silence; won 2000 Satsuki Sho and Kikuka Sho, second in the Japanese Derby, fifth in the King George at Ascot; died young at stud.
Air shower (physics)
An air shower is an extensive cascade of subatomic particles created when a primary cosmic ray strikes an atmospheric nucleus, with a detectable footprint up to several kilometers wide.
Air Sierra Leone
Air Sierra Leone is the privately owned flag carrier of Sierra Leone, a subsidiary of Nigerian airline Xejet, launched in 2024 with its hub at Freetown.
Air sparging
Air sparging, also called in situ air stripping, is a groundwater remediation method first used in Germany in 1985 that injects air into contaminated aquifers to strip volatile organic contaminants.
Air sports (ballooning)
Ballooning, an FAI air sport: hot air and gas balloon competition in distance, speed, and navigation tasks; Gordon Bennett race since 1906; governed by the FAI Ballooning Commission (CIA).
Air sports (olympedia_sports AER)
Air sports (Olympedia code AER) are flight-based competitive sports such as ballooning, gliding, aerobatics, skydiving, and drones, governed worldwide by the IOC-recognized Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, founded 14 October 1905 in Paris.
Air spring
An air spring is a suspension spring that uses compressed air instead of a metal coil, adjustable by pump and lighter than a coil spring.
Air Street Capital
Air Street Capital is a London-based venture capital firm founded in 2019 by Nathan Benaich, investing exclusively in AI-first companies with roughly $400 million under management.
Air Strike (大轰炸) (2018 film)
Air Strike (大轰炸, The Bombing) is a 2018 Chinese WWII war film by director Xiao Feng about the Japanese bombing of Chongqing, starring Bruce Willis and Adrien Brody; its Chinese release was cancelled in 2018 amid a tax scandal and it earned $516,279 worldwide.
Air stripping
Air stripping is a water and wastewater treatment process that removes volatile contaminants such as VOCs and ammonia by contacting the water with air, transferring pollutants into the gas phase.
Air superiority fighter
An air superiority fighter is a combat aircraft designed to gain and maintain control of the airspace over a battlefield so friendly forces can operate without enemy interference.
Air Supply
Air Supply is an Australian soft rock duo formed in 1975 by Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock, known for ballads like "All Out of Love" and touring for five decades.
Air supremacy
Air supremacy, also called aerial supremacy, is the highest degree of control of the air, permitting operations without effective interference by an opposing force's air power and air defenses.
Air suspension
Air suspension, also called pneumatic suspension, is a vehicle suspension system using pressurized rubber bellows instead of metal springs, allowing adjustable ride height and self-leveling under varying loads.