Tools that measure weather

Just like rooftop or mountain top views offer a wider view of your surroundings, a weather satellite's position several hundred to thousands of miles above Earth's surface allows observation of weather across large areas. This extended view also helps meteorologists spot weather systems and patterns hours to days before being detected by surface observing instruments, like weather radar.

Weather radar is an essential weather instrument used to locate precipitation, calculate its motion, and estimate its type rain, snow, or hail and intensity light or heavy. First used during World War II as a defense mechanism, radar was identified as a potential scientific tool when military personnel happened to notice "noise" from precipitation on their radar displays.

Today, radar is an essential tool for forecasting precipitation associated with thunderstorms, hurricanes, and winter storms. In , the National Weather Service began upgrading its Doppler radars with dual polarization technology.

These "dual-pol" radars send and receive horizontal and vertical pulses conventional radar only sends out horizontal which gives forecasters a much clearer, two-dimensional picture of what's out there, be it rain, hail, smoke, or flying objects. There's one very important weather observing instrument we haven't mentioned yet: the human senses!

Weather instruments are necessary too, but they can never replace human expertise and interpretation. No matter what your weather app, indoor-outdoor weather station records, or access to high-end equipment, never forget to verify it against what you observe and experience in "real life" outside your window and door.

Each of the above weather instruments uses either the in-situ or remote sensing method of measuring. Translated as "in place," in-situ measurements are those taken at the point of interest your local airport or backyard. In contrast, remote sensors collect data about the atmosphere from some distance away. Actively scan device characteristics for identification.

Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Radar What is radar? Radar is an electronic instrument, which determines the direction and distance of objects that reflect radio energy back to the radar site. It stands for Radio Detection and Ranging. This is what meteorologists use to see rain or snow. What is Doppler Radar? Doppler Radar detects precipitation intensity, wind direction and speed, and provides estimates of hail size and rainfall amounts.

Doppler Radar gives forecasters the capability of providing early detection of severe thunderstorms that may bring strong damaging winds, large hail, heavy rain, and possibly tornadoes. Combined with satellites, radar gives forecasters the ultimate tools to provide accurate forecasts and advanced severe weather warnings. How does Doppler Radar work? As the strain gauge gets distorted by flexing, the resistance across it changes and the reading is converted to our atmospheric pressure.

Electronic barometers can be made small, very, very small! These are the most commonly used barometers in home weather stations.

That makes for a crappy barometer though. To make a barometer good for weather forecasting everyone has to be on the same page. The frame of reference used is the average global pressure at sea level of So you have to add back in the pressure drop from your altitude.

Since air pressure also changes with temperature and humidity, this must be figured in also. There are calculators on the net for this purpose, or, if you have a local airport at your same elevation you can adjust your barometer to match theirs. Acurite has a patented self-calibrating barometer. It gets your average pressure by taking a measurement every 12 minutes for 33 days. Then it is just a matter of adding the average difference to your barometric reading. Anemometers measure wind speed and wind vanes detect wind direction.

Both of these weather instruments are usually found together. Anemometers used in modern home weather stations come in three forms:.

To determine speed and direction, these wind sensors use a magnet passing a reed switch or a light beam getting interrupted to count revolutions or position. Some wind vanes use a potentiometer to sense position. On my LaCrosse unit, the propeller uses a magnet and the wind vane uses an optical sensor. I had trouble with the wind vane at a certain time of day at a certain time of year. Seems that when the Sun was in a very particular position it interfered with the optical sensor.

So I wrapped some electrical tape around the area I thought the sensor was at, and that fixed it. With a sonic, or ultrasonic wind sensor you have no moving parts. Two or three receiver-transmitter pairs are arranged such that when the wind blows across the array the sonic signals are changed more on one pair than another.

From this, the wind speed and direction can be calculated. A very common and old measure of wind is the Beaufort scale or BFT. This measures the observed force of the wind. Originally coming from sailors observations of the effects that the force of the wind had on their sails and on the ocean.

The Beaufort scale runs from 0, meaning dead calm, to 12 meaning hurricane force winds. On land, the observations are of how smoke rises and how the wind affects tree leaves and branches. A rain gauge, known as a pluviometer, is used to measure the amount of precipitation that occurs over a period of time. An electronic rain gauge can also determine the rate of rainfall. Modern rain gauges used in digital weather stations are most commonly of the tipping bucket or sometimes called tipping spoon design.

The tipping bucket design is a rain collection container with a small hole in the bottom. Water goes through the hole and collects in a small calibrated receiver. This is set up as a lever or a pivot so that as one spoon gets full of water it tips downward and the water spills out, meanwhile the other spoon is lifted up and is filling up.

Rainfall is measured by electronically counting how many tips the buckets made and adding up the capacity of the buckets. Rainfall rate is determined by how fast the buckets tipped back and forth. As you can see, there are some limitations to this device.

For instance, a high precipitation rate can overwhelm the capacity of the gauge and the water just spills out. And the tipping bucket arrangement has to be fed water at a reasonable rate to keep water from splashing out. The other side of that is you cannot measure less than a full bucket. Point out that it looks like a thermometer, but it moves up when the air is lighter and down when it is heavier.

Elicit from students that the instrument measures air pressure. Continue with the remaining photos. Ask: What weather ingredient s do you think would be important to measure on another planet? Which instrument would give you the best measurement of your chosen weather ingredient?

Informal Assessment Have students play the card game a second time as an assessment activity after teaching about weather instruments. Learning Objectives Students will: determine which instruments would be helpful on other planets. Teaching Approach Learning-for-use. Teaching Methods Discussions Simulations and games. Resources Provided The resources are also available at the top of the page.

Background Information Weather is measured using a variety of instruments. Prior Knowledge None. Vocabulary air pressure. Also called visual range. Also called a weather vane. Modification To make this activity more hands-on, and to help your kinesthetic learners, obtain examples of the actual instruments from the school science lab or other teachers.

Media Credits The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit. Writer Anna Mika, M. Media If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer.

Text Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service. Interactives Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. Related Resources. Learn at Home: Grades K View Collection. Measuring Weather. View Activity.