Earth Science: Meteorology and Weather Observations
People have a great interest in tomorrow’s weather. The oldest written reports about weather phenomena are over 5,000 years old. The weather has been systematically recorded and analyzed for the last 150 years.
Nowadays, weather conditions are observed, measured, and recorded around the clock through a global network of data recording devices. Weather stations, measuring buoys, and weather balloons provide data on air pressure, temperature, precipitation, humidity, sun hours, wind direction, and wind speed by means of mercury barometers, hygrometers, and
weather vanes.
This data can be accessed at any time, even from remote areas. Planes are used for observations of the atmosphere at high altitudes, usually when dangerous tropical storms are about to form. Since the 1960s, weather satellites have also been in use, continuously sending data to receiving stations on the Earth.
Weather forecasts
Collected data is sent to various centers distributed across the globe and from there they are redirected to regional stations and national weather services. They are all members of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which was founded in 1951 as an agency of the United Nations. Based on the data provided, weather services produce weather maps using internationally standardized symbols.
The expected weather patterns for the following few days (using numerical weather prediction) are calculated by computers using mathematical-physical formulas. Given the advances in technology, people are always hoping for more and more reliable weather forecasts. However, long-term predictions are difficult to make due to the complex processes taking place in the atmosphere.
With modern computer-assisted weather models, meteorologists can reliably predict the following five days’ weather, whereas ten years ago we could only predict three days ahead. Such computer-based models are also used for less accurate long-term forecasts.
VILHELM BJERKNES
The Norwegian geophysicist and meteorologist Vilhelm Bjerknes (1862-1951) was a major pioneer of meteorology. He developed the theory of warm and cold air fronts, as well as the basic principles of numerical weather prediction.
He carried out some of his most significant studies at the University of Leipzig’s Institute of Geophysics in Germany. Due to the outbreak of the First World War, he was forced to return to Nor- way in 1917, where he founded the Geophysical Institute in Bergen.