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.

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

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

A wind blowing in a direction opposite to the heading of a moving object, thus opposing the object's intended progress; the opposite of a tailwind.

The amount of precipitation captured by a rain gauge.

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

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

See aneroid capsule.

In folklore, a name for rain.

A liquid-in-metal thermometer in which mercury is enclosed in a steel envelope. The change in internal pressure caused by the temperature variation is measured by a Bourdon tube which is connected to the mercury by a capillary tube. This instrument is hig ...

A severe weather condition characterized by low temperatures and strong winds bearing a great amount of snow, either falling or picked up from the ground.

A subtle, diumal component of the wind velocity leading to a diumal shift of the wind or turning of the wind with the sun, produced bv the east-to-west progression of daytime surface heating.

A barometer which measures atmospheric pressure using one or a series of aneroid capsules. Also called holosteric barometer.

The greatest distance at which it is just possible to see and recognize with the unaided eye (1) in the daytime, a prominent dark object against the sky at the horizon, and (2) at night, a known, preferably unfocused, moderately intense light source.

A class of instruments employed to determine the electric potential at a point in the atmosphere, and ultimately the atmospheric electric field.

An instrument of the aspiration condenser type which measures the concentration and mobility of small ions.

A recording variometer.

Central Processing Unit. The part of a computer which controls and directs all functions.

The maximum difference in output for any given input (within the specified range) when the value is approached first with increasing, and then with decreasing, input signals. Caused by energy absorption in the elements of the measuring instrument. Usually ...

The value of atmospheric pressure to which the scale of a pressure altimeter is set so as to indicate airport elevation. The altimeter setting is included as part of an aviation weather observation.