Sir Napier Shaw's name for the approximate absolute temperature scale,

Fine dust or salt particles dispersed through a portion of the atmosphere; a type of lithometer. The particles are so small they cannot be felt or seen with the naked eye. Many haze formations are caused by the presence of an abundance of condensation nuc ...

The envelope of air surrounding the earth and bound to it more or less permanently by virtue of the earth's gravitational attraction. The system whose chemical Properties. dynamic motions, and physical processes constitute the subject matter of meteorolog ...

A system in which radar techniques are used to determine the range, elevation, and azimuth of a radar target carried a!oft by a radiosonde, so that wind data may be obtained along with the other meteorological data.

A box-like structure designed to protect certain meteorological instruments from exposure to direct sunlight, precipitation, and condensation, while at the same time providing adequate ventilation. Instrument shelters are painted white, have louvered side ...

The process by which small particles suspended in a medium of a different refractive index diffuse a portion of the incident radiation in all directions. In scattering no energy transformation results, only a change in the spatial distribution of the radi ...

General term for an instrument which records the vertical electric current in the atmosphere.

The length of air flow past a wind vane required for the vane to respond to 50 percent of a step change in wind direction. Expressed in feet or meters and calculated from delay time times wind tunnel speed.

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

Very generally, any moving- stream of air. It has no particular technical connotation.

A measure of long-term precipitation effectiveness. The ratio of the normal annual rainfall to the normal annual evaporation.

Wind with a speed between 11 and 16 knots (13 and 18 mph); Beaufort scale number 4.

Same as aneroid barometer. Holostelic means wholly made of solids, while aneroid means devoid of liquid.

The correction applied to an instrument to account for the effect of temperature upon its response characteristics.

Abbreviation for precipitation-evaporation quotient.

The transducer of any hygrometer, i.e. that part of a hygrometer that quantitatively "senses" atmospheric water vapor.

A polariscope consisting of a specially constructed double plate polarizer and a tourmaline plate analyzer. Polarized light passing through the instrument is indicated by the presence of parallel colored fringes, while unpolarized light results in a unifo ...

The standard deviation of a sufficiently large number of measurements of the same quantity by the same instrument or method. The non-correctable part of the inaccuracy of an instrument, it represents the limit of measurement precision. The uncertainty of ...

The quantity to be measured (or modulated, or detected, or operated upon) which is received by an instrument. Thus, for a thermometer. temperature is the input quantity.

A system of designating meteorological observing stations by number. established and administered by the World Meteorological Organization. Under this scheme, specified areas of the word are divided into "blocks" each bearing a two-number designator. Stat ...