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Royal Charter Storm
The Royal Charter Storm, also called the Royal Charter Gale, struck the Irish Sea and west coast of Britain in October 1859, destroying 133 ships and killing about 800 people.
Royal Meteorological Society
The Royal Meteorological Society, founded as the British Meteorological Society in 1850, is the United Kingdom's professional and learned society for weather and climate, based in Reading.
Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute
The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut, KNMI) is the Dutch national institute for weather, climate, and seismology, founded in 1854 by royal decree of King Willem III.
RP FLIP
RP FLIP, or FLoating Instrument Platform, was a Scripps Institution spar buoy that flipped upright at sea to serve as a stable research lab from 1962 to 2023.
RRS Sir David Attenborough
RRS Sir David Attenborough is a British polar research and supply ship of the British Antarctic Survey, delivered in 2020 after a naming poll won by "Boaty McBoatface".
Ruby
Ruby is the red gem variety of the mineral corundum, colored by trace chromium, prized as one of the most valuable colored gemstones and the July birthstone.
Runoff coefficient
The runoff coefficient (C) is a dimensionless number expressing what fraction of rainfall becomes direct runoff, most familiar from the Rational Method for estimating peak discharge.
Runoff curve number
The runoff curve number, or curve number, is an empirical index, developed in 1954 by the USDA Soil Conservation Service, that converts soil and land cover into storm runoff estimates.
Runoff generation
Runoff generation is the set of physical processes turning precipitation into streamflow, conventionally distinguished as infiltration-excess overland flow, saturation-excess overland flow, subsurface stormflow, and groundwater flow.
Runoff model (reservoir)
A runoff model (reservoir) is a rainfall-runoff model representing a catchment as storage reservoirs that delay and release water, as in the linear reservoir, Nash cascade, and Tank model.
Rupelian
The Rupelian is the lower stage of the Oligocene, spanning roughly 33.9 to 27.3 million years ago and defining the base of the Oligocene Epoch.
Russian Hydrographic Service
The Hydrographic Service of the Russian Navy is the state body for nautical charting and hydrographic surveying, administered by the Ministry of Defense's Navigation and Oceanography Department.
RV Atlantis (research vessel)
RV Atlantis is a U.S. Navy-owned oceanographic research vessel operated by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution since 1997 and built to launch and service the Alvin submersible.
RV Petrel
RV Petrel, now MV Sarah Lynn, is a research vessel that found famous lost World War II warships, including USS Indianapolis, and was bought by the US Navy in 2022.
RV Sikuliaq
RV Sikuliaq, named for an Iñupiaq word meaning young sea ice, is a 261-foot research vessel operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks in Seward, Alaska.
RV Thomas G. Thompson (T-AGOR-23)
R/V Thomas G. Thompson (T-AGOR-23) is a Navy-owned Global-class oceanographic research vessel operated by the University of Washington's School of Oceanography, built in 1991 and home-ported in Seattle.
S wave
An S wave, or secondary wave, is a seismic body wave that shakes rock sideways, travels slower than the P wave, and cannot pass through liquids.
S-100 (IHO standard)
S-100 is the International Hydrographic Organization's Universal Hydrographic Data Model, a framework of standards for managing and exchanging digital hydrographic data, replacing the older S-57 standard.
S-100 Universal Hydrographic Data Model
S-100 is the International Hydrographic Organization's universal hydrographic data model, an 18-part framework based on ISO 19100 that underpins S-10x products like the S-101 chart.
S-57 (hydrographic data standard)
S-57 is the International Hydrographic Organization's transfer standard for digital hydrographic data, used to exchange data between hydrographic offices and build Electronic Navigational Charts for ECDIS.
Sado Island Gold Mines
The Sado Island Gold Mines (佐渡島の金山) are gold and silver mines on Sado Island, Niigata Prefecture, Japan, worked by hand from the late 1500s and inscribed by UNESCO in 2024.
Safe yield
Safe yield is a groundwater management concept for how much water an aquifer can supply long-term without unacceptable effects, introduced by Charles H. Lee in 1915.
Saffir–Simpson scale
The Saffir–Simpson scale, or Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, rates hurricanes 1 to 5 by maximum sustained wind speed, used in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific.
Safford Mine
The Safford Mine is an open-pit copper mine in Graham County, Arizona, owned by Freeport-McMoRan, which began production in December 2007 as the first major Arizona copper mine opened since 1973.
Saharan air layer
The Saharan air layer (SAL) is a hot, dry, dust-laden air mass that forms over the Sahara and moves west across the tropical Atlantic, sometimes suppressing hurricane development.
Sahel drought
The Sahel drought was a prolonged period of abnormally low rainfall across the semi-arid Sahel from the late 1960s through the 1990s, among the most extreme droughts on record.
Saildrone
Saildrone is a family of wind- and solar-powered robotic sailboats built by Saildrone, Inc. of Alameda, California, used for ocean science, hurricane research, and maritime security.
Sailing Directions
Sailing Directions are official descriptive pilotage publications issued by national hydrographic offices, providing written coastal, port-approach, and passage-planning information to supplement nautical charts; main producers include NGA, NOAA, and the UK Hydrographic Office.
Sailing stones
Sailing stones, also called sliding rocks, are rocks that move across Racetrack Playa, a dry lakebed in Death Valley, California, leaving long trails in the mud.
Salar de Atacama
Salar de Atacama is a salt flat in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, hosting the world's largest lithium brine deposit, about 42% of global reserves.