Anomaly

anomaly

1. The deviation of (usually) temperature or precipitation in a given region over a specified period from the long-term average value for the same region.

   
   

   
   See anomalous, abnormal.

   
   
2. In geophysics, the local deviation from the long wavelength trend, as magnetic anomaly or gravity anomaly.

   
   
3. In oceanography, the difference between conditions actually observed at a station and those that would have existed had the water all been of a given arbitrary temperature and salinity.

   
   

Any function of time f(t) is periodic with period t if f(t) = f(t + τ) for all times t, where τ is the smallest number for which this equality holds.