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Tiffany lam
what does cascading upward mean?
The Butterfly Effect is the reason. For small pieces of weather -- and to a global forecaster, small can mean thunderstorms and blizzards -- any prediction deteriorates rapidly. Errors and uncertainties multiply, cascading upward through a chain of turbulent features, from dust devils and squalls up to continent-size eddies that only satellites can see.
Mar 6, 2017 3:42 PM
Answers · 3
It's a little bit curious. I don't think it's a very well-chosen phrase here. However, the meaning is clear.
Literally a "cascade" is a kind of waterfall, usually one that is made up of a series of small waterfalls, and of course waterfalls always fall down. In some cascades, each waterfall is higher, faster, and more turbulent than the waterfall that feeds it, creating a sense of increasing power and size.
However, "cascade" can mean "a linked chain of events, each one causing the next, that unfolds in a somewhat chaotic or unpredictable way." Sometimes, it means a chain of events in which each one even causes a bigger one. That's what is meant here. "Cascading up" means that each event causes a bigger event: butterfly's wings -> dust devil -> squall.
March 6, 2017
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Tiffany lam
Language Skills
Chinese (Mandarin), English, German, Japanese
Learning Language
English, German, Japanese
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