Scale	Length	Area	Locale
Micro	1 m - 1 km	1 m2 - 1 km2	local
Meso	1 km - 100 km	1 km2 - 10 000 km2	regional
Macro	100 km - 10 000 km	10 000 km2 - 100 000 000 km2	continental
Mega	> 10 000 km	>100 000 000 km2	global

Spatial scale provides a "shorthand" form for discussing relative lengths, areas, distances and sizes. A microclimate, for instance, is one which might occur in a mountain

Mountain

Image:Himalaya_annotated.jpg|thumb|right|The Himalayan mountain range with Mount Everestrect 58 14 160 49 Chomo Lonzorect 200 28 335 52 Makalurect 378 24 566 45 Mount Everestrect 188 581 920 656 Tibetan Plateaurect 250 406 340 427 Rong River...

 valley

Valley

In geology, a valley or dale is a depression with predominant extent in one direction. A very deep river valley may be called a canyon or gorge.The terms U-shaped and V-shaped are descriptive terms of geography to characterize the form of valleys...

 or near a lakeshore, whereas a megatrend is one which involves the whole planet

Planet

A planet is a celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, science,...

.

It is important to realize that these divisions are more or less arbitrary, and where, on this table, mega- is assigned global scope, it may only apply continentally or even regionally in other contexts. The interpretations of meso- and macro- must then be adjusted accordingly.

See also

• astronomical units of length
  Astronomical units of length
  The astronomical system of units, formally called the IAU System of Astronomical Constants, is a system of measurement developed for use in astronomy...
  
  
• cosmic distance ladder
  Cosmic distance ladder
  The cosmic distance ladder is the succession of methods by which astronomers determine the distances to celestial objects. A real direct distance measurement of an astronomical object is possible only for those objects that are "close enough" to Earth...
  
  
• orders of magnitude (length)

External links

• A sense of scale by Paul Falstad — visual depictions of the relative scale of various distances, ranging from the Planck length to the furthest known object in the Universe
  Universe
  The Universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space. Definitions and usage vary and similar terms include the cosmos, the world and nature...
  
  .