Visual Observations

Titelangaben

Foken, Thomas ; Rülke, Raymond:
Visual Observations.
In: Foken, Thomas (Hrsg.): Springer Handbook of Atmospheric Measurements. - Cham : Springer , 2021 . - S. 647-659 . - (Springer Handbooks )
ISBN 978-3-030-52170-7
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52171-4_22

Volltext

Link zum Volltext (externe URL):

Abstract

Visual observations of the state of the weather have been made for hundreds and thousands of years. Observers have always been impressed by natural phenomena. Since the beginning of measurements nearly 500 years ago, visual observations have became a relevant part of meteorological observations – even when they only represent empirical relationships. Although electronic sensors and automatization now significantly reduce the importance of visual observations made by direct measurements or the combination of measurements, some observations are still in use and are reported in this chapter. These include the Beaufort wind force scale, the cloud classification scheme, and the atmospheric visibility observation. These observations remain relevant because they cannot be easily replaced, as in the case of cloud classification, or they provide a fast overview of the meteorological situation in the absence of measurements.