Atmosphere Observation - History, Weather Balloons, Rockets And Aircraft, Weather Satellites, Atmospheric Composition - Kites
altitudes instruments devices
The term weather observation refers to all of the equipment and techniques used to study the properties of the atmosphere. These include such well-known instruments as the thermometer and barometer as well as less familiar devices such as the radiosonde and devices for detecting the presence of trace gases in the atmosphere.
One of the first means developed for raising scientific instruments to higher altitudes was the kite. In one of the most famous kite experiments of this kind, Benjamin Franklin used a kite in 1752 to discover that lightning was nothing other than a form of electricity. Within a short period of time, kites were being used by other scientists to carry recording thermometers into the atmosphere, where they could read temperatures at various altitudes.
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An important breakthrough in atmospheric observation came in the late eighteenth century with the invention of the hot-air balloon. Balloon flights made it possible to carry instruments thousands of feet into the atmosphere to take measurements. The English physician John Jeffries is often given credit for the first balloon ascension for the purpose of making meteorological measurements. In 1785 J…
The invention of the airplane and the rocket created a multitude of new opportunities for the study of the atmosphere by making it possible to carry instruments far higher than they had ever gone before. At first, airplanes did similar work to that done by scientists traveling in balloons. Airplanes, however, performed that work much more efficiently, and at higher altitudes, with greater safety a…
The most sophisticated atmospheric observational systems of all are those that make use of artificial satellites. A weather satellite is a device that is lifted into Earth orbit by a rocket and that carries inside it a large number of instruments for measuring many properties of the atmosphere. The first weather satellite ever launched was put into orbit by the U.S. government on April 1, 1960. It…
The observational systems described so far can be used to measure more than just physical properties such as temperature, pressure, and air movements. They can also be used to determine the chemical composition of the atmosphere. Such measurements can be valuable not only in the field of meteorology, but in other fields as well. One of the earliest examples of such research dates to 1804 when the …
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