What do you know about weather instrumentation?
A common complaint mentioned by prospective employers of students that graduate from undergraduate meteorology programs
is that they have little hands-on experience with instrumentation (of course, they have a bunch of other common complaints too). During the first few weeks of the Spring Semester, you'll receive an intensive dose of information about instrumentation. The purpose of this assignment is to assess what you know about instrumentation and to get you to track down some answers to a few basic questions.
Don't panic if you can't find out everything, but do spend some time looking for as many answers as possible.
We'll go over this info on October 13th. Be ready to discuss your answers at that time.
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Basic Electronics: or why did you have to study electricity in physics?
- What is the difference between DC and AC power?
- What is a capacitor?
- Why might an electrical current passed through a resistor provide information on temperature?
- What is a thermocouple?
- What is a semiconductor?
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Pressure
- What is atmospheric pressure?
- What is the molecular weight of Mercury? of water?
- If the atmospheric pressure at Salt Lake City balances a 65 cm column of Mercury, how tall would the column of water have to be to balance the same atmospheric pressure?
- From the Web links on the Meteorology web page, describe 1 pressure sensor
that is available commercially.
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Temperature
- What is temperature?
- What are the boiling point and freezing points (in C) of mercury? of alcohol?
- From the Web links on the Meteorology web page, describe 1 temperature
sensor that is available commercially (use a different manufacturer than previous one).
- Describe in detail how the glass thermometer with the floating balls works.(Hint: do a Web search and you may find it helpful to look for the inventor Galilieo.)
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Humidity
- What are the best measures
of water content in the atmosphere? What is the best measure of the water content relative to that of saturated air?
- Why would a human (or horse) hair be used to measure relative humidity?
- From the Web links on the Meteorology web page, describe 1 humidity
sensor that is available commercially (use a different manufacturer than previously).
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Precipitation
- Many precipitation gauges weigh the amount of water collected in a cylinder.
One that the department owns has a diameter of 12 inches.
If a rain event would cover the surface an inch deep,
how many milliliters of water would this be?
How much would it weigh in grams?
The density of water is 1000 kg/m3.
- Tipping bucket rain gauges tip when they receive .01 inches of water. The standard diameter of a tipping bucket gauge is 8 inches. How many mililiters of water must be captured by the rain gauge in order for it to tip?
- Why is it a bad idea to put a precipitation gauge at a windy location? Such as the top of an 8 story building?
- From the Web links on the Meteorology web page, describe 1 precipitation
sensor that is available commercially (use a different vendor).
- Jeopardy Time! I've supplied the answers, what are the questions?
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Measures the total incident solar radiation
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Is launched aloft and measures temperature, pressure, etc. as it descends
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The span over which a weather parameter can be measured
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A temperature probe should never be exposed directly to this
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Relies on the frequency shift between a pulse of electromagnetic radiation travelling toward an object and the return pulse after it hits the object
- A hyetometer