A thermometer consisting of a clock mechanism the speed of which is a function of temperature.

An empirical curve relating stream discharge or stage at a point on a stream to discharge or stage at one or more upstream points and, possibly. to other parameters. Also called stage relation.

A instrument designed to study small fluctuations of some quantity. The microbarograph is an example of a recording pressure variometer.

See radiosonde commutator.

A type of precipitation composed of unbranched crystals in the form of needles, columns, or plates. Usually has a very slight downward motion and may fall from a cloudless sky.

Part of a computer word that has meaning in itself, often, a byte.

A rain gauge or array of rain gauges designed to measure the inclination and direction of falling rain.

Situated on the side from which the wind blows.

Thermometer used for measuring the highest temperature attained during a given interval of time, for example, a day.

A type of cloud height indicator which uses a searchlight to project vertically a narrow beam of light onto the cloud base. The height of the cloud is determined using a clinometer, located at a known distance from the ceiling light, to measure the angle ...

An instrument which determines the black-body temperature of a substance by measuring its thermal radiation.

Wind with a speed between 4 and 6 knots (4 and 7 mph), Beaufort scale number 2.

Abbreviation for visual flight rules, but commonly used to refer to the relatively favorable weather and/or flight conditions to which these rules apply.

A mercury barometer designed for use aboard ship. The instrument is of the fixed-cistern type (see Kew barometer). The mercury tube is constructed with a wide bore for its upper portion and with a capillary bore for its lower portion. This is done to incr ...

Any sudden and heavy rain, almost always of the shower type.

In general, pertaining to or affording an overall view. In meteorology, this term has become somewhat specialized in referring to the use of meteorological data obtained simultaneously over a wide area for the purpose of obtaining a comprehensive and near ...

(1) The initial component or the sensing element of a measuring system. For example, the receiver of a rain gauge is the funnel which captures the rain and the receiver of a thermoelectric thermometer is the measuring thermocouple. (2) An instrument used ...

An absolute pyhrliometer, developed by C.G. Abbott, in which the radiation-sensing element is a blackened water-calorimeter.

A large body of air having similar horizontal temperature and moisture characteristics.

A hypothetical, ideal body which absorbs completely all incident radiation. independent of wavelength and direction. No actual substance behaves as a true black body, although platinum black and other soots rather closely approximate this ideal. However, ...