Invention of the Meteorological Instruments

Abstract

REVIEWSlittle to be desired in putting over routine forecasts and many intelligent television watchers are becoming ' weather-minded.' But what of the ordinary B.B.C. forecast bulletins ? Here it may be there is considerable room for improvement in spite of recent welcome changes. Why should there not be a forecasting station at Broadcasting House so that the forecaster could prepare his forecast on the spot and read it at the allotted time, thus eliminating the present time-lag ? This would not only give credit to the forecaster but would also save him the often unjustifiable ignominy of suffering the slings and arrows from critics when a difficult synoptic situation and the time-lag factor have together combined to make his forecast sound absurd at the time of issue -it would, too, be of much greater practical value ! A little extra expenditure in public money here might save far larger sums elsewhere through those who rely on the forecasts for practical purposes. In this connextion one might also put in a plea for further information in the restoration of the forecast bulletin before the 9.0 p.m. News. At 5.55 p.m. few ordinary citizens are home from work to listen but it must be that a large portion of the population sit back in the evening to listen to the 9.0 o'clock News. At present they merely hear, incorporated in this, a condensed version of the earlier bulletin; what they want is some intelligent and up-to-date prognostication on which they may base their activities for the following day. This has been somewhat offset by the recent introduction of a summary and forecast at 11.3 p.m. but for many this is late.With the great demand, with the regrettable continued absence of Airmet but with the high standard of the forecasting -surely something rather better can yet be produced to satisfy the wants of the ordinary man through the ordinary broadcast forecast bulletin ? There seems here to be deficiency in efficiency which is incompatible with the rest of the work carried out by the Office or through the Office for the service of man.C.D.O. In the 13 years since the first publication of this standard work on meteorological instruments (see Quarterly Journal, 68, p. 86, 1942) there have been many developments particularly in the field of measurements in the upper air. In this new edition the authors have included descriptions of new instruments and techniques such as radar-wind finding, thunderstorm location, and radar-storm detection and have retained with minor modifications and few additions the previous excellent accounts of the more standardized instruments for measuring surface pressure, temperature, humidity, precipitation and wind. In doing so they have usually confined their description to general principles and their examples to apparatus found in routine use in official Weather Services particularly those of Canada and the U.S.A. They have recognized wisely that it is impossible in a work of this type to give an exhaustive account of all the various research and specialized instruments new example...

Solar Radiation Changes in Japan during the 20th Century: Evidence from Sunshine Duration Measurements

“…The first measurements of sunshine duration in Japan made in 1890 with the Jordan photographic recorder (Middleton 1969) were reported in the Annual Report of the Central Meteorological Observatory of Japan. By 1900 routine measurements of SS made with the Jordan recorder were published for 15 stations; this number rose to 104 in 1910, to 138 in 1950, and then decreased to 121 in 1970.…”

Using digital image processing to characterize the Campbell–Stokes sunshine recorder and to derive high-temporal resolution direct solar irradiance

“…The recording card has to be replaced daily after sunset. Different designs of cards exist with hourly and half-hourly divisions marked across these cards, enabling determination of the times of sunshine, and an estimated resolution of 0.1 h. For further details on the instrument and instructions for obtaining uniform results, as well as other traditional instruments for measuring SD, see Middleton (1969) and WMO (2008).…”

Height Extraction and Stand Volume Estimation Based on Fusion Airborne LiDAR Data and Terrestrial Measurements for a Norway Spruce [<i>Picea abies</i> (L.) Karst.] Test Site in Romania

“…The use of airborne LiDAR technology (a term first used by Middleton and Spilhaus, 1953), as a part of modern active sensor remote sensing, has grown rapidly and continuously, boosted by the necessity of obtaining more precise geospatial information about topography, such as digital terrain model (DTM) and digital surface model (DSM) (Popescu et al, 2002;Dorren et al, 2006;Maguya et al, 2014). LiDAR systems may operate on the ground, in the air or from satellite platforms.…”