An instrument, dropped from high attitude and carried by a stable parachute. used to measure the vertical component of turbulence aloft.

Abbreviation for mean sea level.

A rainbow of angular radius of about 50

Any source of radiant energy, especially electromagnetic energy.

A transducer for converting thermal energy directly into electrical energy. It is composed of pairs of thermocouples which are connected either in series or in parallel. Thermopiles are used in thermoelectric radiation instruments when the output of a sin ...

National Centers for Environmental Prediction. Central computer and communications facility of the National Weather Service; located in Washington, DC.

A diagram showing the intensity of the radiation field in all directions from a transmitting radio or radar antenna at a given distance from the antenna.

A balloon-borne instrument for the simultaneous measurement and transmission of meteorological data. It includes transducers for the measurement of pressure, temperature, and humidity; a modulator for the conversion of the output of the transducers to a q ...

A measurement of atmospheric conditions aloft, above the effective range of a surface weather observation. Elements evaluated include temperature, humidity, pressure, wind speed, and wind direction.

A device used to hold liquid-in-glass maximum and minimum thermometers in the proper recording position inside an instrument shelter, and to permit them to be read and reset. See Townsend support.

Having a specific relationship to a time base or clock. In synchronous communications, data characters are sent according to a timing signal which synchronizes the two communicating devices.

Same as rain-intensity gauge.

Same as instrument shelter.

The direction, with respect to true north, from which the wind is blowing. Distinguish from magnetic wind direction. In all standard upper-air and surface weather observations, it is true wind direction that is reported.

A generic term for any machine that enables a human being to communicate with a computer.

The ratios, to the mean wind speed, of the average magnitudes of the component fluctuations of the wind along three mutually perpendicular axes.

A pyranometer developed by M. Robitzsch. Its design utilizes three bimetallic strips which are exposed horizontally at the center of a hemispherical glass bowl. The outer strips are white reflectors and the center strip is a blackened absorber. The bimeta ...

An instrument which measures the spectral distribution of the intensity of direct solar radiation.

Any one of six gases, helium, neon, argon, krypton, xenon, and radon, all of whose shells of planetary electrons contain stable numbers of electrons such that the atoms are chemically inactive.

A rain gauge which automatically records the amount of precipitation collected, as a function of time.