A measure of the amount of "spin" (or rotation) in the atmosphere.

Temperarure at which a liquid solidifies under any given set of conditions. It may or may not be the same as the melting point or the more rigidly defined true freezing point or (for water) ice point.

Precipitation composed of liquid water drops more than 0.5 mm in diameter, failing in relatively straight, but not necessarily vertical, paths. Compare to drizzle.

A component of a radiosonde consisting of a series of alternate electrically conducting and insulating strips. As these are scanned by a contact the radiosonde transmits temperature and humidity signals alternately. The contact may be a baroswitch as in t ...

A balloon used to carry a radiosonde aloft, considerably larger than pilot balloons or ceiling balloons.

The temperature registered by a thermometer with its bulb at the level of the tops of the grass blades in short turf.

A rainbow seen in the spray of the ocean. It is optically the same phenomenon as the ordinary rainbow.

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.

The intensity (flux per unit solid angle) of visible radiation weighted to take into account the variable response of the human eye as a function of the wavelength of light. Usually expressed in candles.

See ceilometer.

The component of the radiosonde which includes the modulating blocking oscillator and the radiofrequency carrier oscillator.

The maximum positive and negative deviation observed in testing a device under specified conditions and by a specified procedure. It is usually measured as an inaccuracy and expressed as accuracy, typically in terms of the measured variable, percent of sp ...

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 ...

Instrument for measuring the depth of water from precipitation that is assumed to be distributed over a horizontal, impervious surface and not subject to evaporation.

An instrument which automatically records the voltage applied to it, as a function of time.

A pyrheliometer of the thermoelectric type. Radiation is allowed to fall on two concentric silver rings, the outer covered with magnesium oxide and the inner covered with lamp black. A system of thermocouples (thermopile) is used to measure the temperatur ...

A modification of the dew cell used in radiosonde equipment.

A chronograph used to make a time-record of certain measured meteorological elements. The most common type, the triple register, records wind direction and speed, duration of sunshine, and amount of rainfall (sensed respectively by a contact anemometer, M ...

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

A wind (or component thereof) directed down the slope of an incline and caused by greater air density near the slope than at the same levels some distance horizontally from the slope. Also called drainage wind and sometimes called katabatic wind.