Cathode Ray Tube. A display element, consisting of a vacuum tube and screen, used with computers.

Clouds which cover between 6/10 and 9/10 of the sky. See Sky Terminology.

A general term to designate apparatus designed to observe the details of weather during thunderstorms.

For a given cloud or cloud laver. the lowest level in the atmosphere at which the air contains a perceptible quantity of cloud particles.

Radio Direction Finder.

A wind vane used to obtain the horizontal and vertical components of the wind.

Automated Surface Observing System. A network of instrumented weather stations deployed primarily by the National Weather Service to make weather observations without operator involvement.

An instrument for collecting liquid water from the atmosphere.

An area of low atmospheric pressure which has a closed circulation that is cyclonic (counterclockwise in northern hemisphere and clockwise in southern hemisphere).

An instrument which indicates the presence of precipitation. The ombroscope consists of a heated, water-sensitive surface which indicates by mechanical or electrical techniques the occurrence of precipitation.

Same as atmometer.

The rising of cold water from the deeper areas of the ocean to the surface. This phenomena often occurs along the California coast during the spring and summer.

A small balloon used to determine the height of the cloud base. The height can be computed from the ascent velocity of the balloon and the time required for its disappearance into the cloud.

Same as constant-level balloon.

A protective coating applied to circuits.

The process by which events in the real world are translated into machine-readable signals.

A unit of energy per unit area commonly employed in radiation theory. Equal to one gram-calorie per square centimeter.

American Standard Code for Information Interchange. A standard code used to represent data using 8 bits (7 data bits and I parity bit) per character.

A buoyant balloon kept from rising freely by means of a line secured to a point on the ground, as opposed to a free balloon. See kytoon.

Lacking a relationship to a time base or clock. In asynchronous communications, individual data characters are sent at an arbitrary rate.