: Practical Exercises in Elementary Meteorology by Ward Robert DeCourcy - Meteorology

@FreeBooks

Posted in: #FreeBooks #FreeBooksIndia #FreeBooksApp #gg

Vote Up Vote Down   0 Reactions

Login to give Reaction!

INTRODUCTION.

PAGE

THE IMPORTANCE OF METEOROLOGY: ITS RELATIONS TO MAN xi

SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS 171

THE EQUIPMENT OF A METEOROLOGICAL LABORATORY 186

INDEX 197

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF FIGURES.

INTRODUCTION.

THE IMPORTANCE OF METEOROLOGY: ITS RELATIONS TO MAN.

We live in the laboratory of the earth's atmosphere. The changes from hot to cold, wet to dry, clear to cloudy, or the reverse, profoundly affect us. We make and unmake our daily plans; we study or we enjoy vacations; we vary our amusements and our clothing according to these changes. The weather forecasts for the day in the newspaper are read even before the telegraphic despatches of important events. Sailors about to put to sea govern themselves according to the storm warnings of our Weather Bureau. Farmers and shippers of fruit, meat, and vegetables anxiously watch the bulletins of cold or warm waves, and guard against damage by frost or excessive heat. Steam and electric railways prepare their snow-plows when a severe snowstorm is predicted.

So important is a knowledge of the conditions of the winds and the weather, that scientific expeditions into unexplored or little-known regions give much of their time to meteorological observations. On the famous Lady Franklin Bay Expedition of Lieutenant A. W. Greely, of the United States Army, meteorological observations were kept up by the few feeble survivors, after death by disease and starvation had almost wiped out the party altogether, and when those who were left had but a few hours to live unless rescue came at once. On Nansen's expedition to the "Farthest North," on Peary's trips to Greenland, and on every recent voyage to the Arctic or the Antarctic, meteorological instruments have formed an important part of the equipment.

Not content with obtaining records from the air near the earth's surface, meteorologists have sent up their instruments by means of small, un-manned balloons to heights of 10 miles; and the use of kites for carrying up such instruments has been so successful that, at Blue Hill Observatory, near Boston, Mass., records have been obtained from a height of over 2 miles. Observatories have also been established on mountain summits, where meteorological observations have been made with more or less regularity. Such observatories are those on Pike's Peak, Colorado , Mont Blanc, Switzerland , and on El Misti, in southern Peru. The latter, 19,200 feet above sea level, is the highest meteorological station in the world.

Free books android app tbrJar TBR JAR Read Free books online gutenberg

(0)

Login to post a comment!