perigean


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perigee

per·i·gee

 (pĕr′ə-jē)
n.
1. Astronomy The point in an orbit around the planet Earth where the orbiting body is closest to the planet.
2. The analogous point in an orbit around a celestial body other than Earth. Not in technical use.

[French périgée, from Medieval Latin perigēum, from Late Greek perigeion : Greek peri-, peri- + Greek , earth.]

per′i·ge′al (-jē′əl), per′i·ge′an (-jē′ən) adj.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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References in periodicals archive ?
This raises the question of whether floods are attributable to high perigean spring tides.
The full Moons of August and September are perigean, meaning the Moon turns full near the date when it's at perigee, closest to Earth for the month.
A supermoon or perigee full Moon brings with it extra-high "perigean tides".
Overlapping of the cycles of spring and perigean tides every 206 days results in an annual progression of 1.5 months in the periods of especially high tides.
The perigean tides' effect on the number of icebergs really was incidental.
When the perigean and spring tides coincide in June and December, the diurnal inequality causes one of the daily tides to be especially strong.
The rare celestial combination first involved the convergence of a spring tide and a perigean tide.
Conversely where macro-tides prevail, the problem of protection is complicated, and never more so than during perigean spring tides (Wood 1976).
But when one of these sets coincides with the Moon's closest approach to the Earth, extra high (perigean) spring tides will occur.