Surface Weather Observation
Surface weather observations are the fundamental data used for safety as well as climatological reasons to forecast weather and issue warnings worldwide. They can be taken manually, by a weather observer, by computer through the use of automated weather stations, or in a hybrid scheme using weather observers to augment the otherwise automated weather station. The ICAO defines the International Standard Atmosphere, which is the model of the standard variation of pressure, temperature, density, and viscosity with altitude in the Earth's atmosphere, and is used to reduce a station pressure to sea level pressure. Airport observations can be transmitted worldwide through the use of the METAR observing code. Personal weather stations taking automated observations can transmit their data to the United States mesonet through the use of the Citizen Weather Observer Program (CWOP), or internationally through the Weather Underground Internet site. A thirty-year average of a location's weather observations is traditionally used to determine the station's climate.
Read more about Surface Weather Observation: Airports, Data Reported, Use of Weather Maps, Ship and Buoy Reports, Use in Establishing Climate of A Location, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words surface, weather and/or observation:
“It was a pretty game, played on the smooth surface of the pond, a man against a loon.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“And there could I marvel my birthday
Away but the weather turned around. And the true
Joy of the long dead child sang burning
In the sun.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“One man’s observation is another man’s closed book or flight of fancy.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)