AVIATION WEATHER

Assignment on Measuring Instruments

Submitted to
Mam Kainat Durrani
 WIND MEASURING INSTRUMENT

ANEMOMETER DEFINITION
An anemometer is an instrument used
for measuring wind speed and direction.
It is derived from two Greek Words
“anemos” means wind. It is used to
describe any wind speed instrument TYPES OF ANEMOMETER
used in meteorology.
a) Pressure
anemometer
b) Velocity
Anemometer

a) Pressure anemometer
have following three
types
Fig. Plate Anemometer
Note: First known description of an anemometer 1)Plate Anemometer
(Plate anemometer) was given by Leon Battista 2)Tube Anemometer
Alberti in 1450. 3)Pitot Tube

b) Velocity Anemometer

1) Vane anemometer
2) Hot Wire Anemometer
3) Laser Doppler Anemometer
4) Ultrasonic Anemometer
5) Acoustic resonance anemometer
6) Ping-pong ball anemometer

PRESSURE ANEMEOMETER
  Old pressure Anemometers are:
a)Plate Anemometer
b)TubeAnemometer

Plate anemometer:
This was the first modern anemometer
invented by Leon Battista Alberti in
1450.
Consist of circular plates balanced by
springs. The compression of spring tells
the force with which the spring is
compressed by wind. In this way wind
speed is recorded

Tube Anemometer:
Early on invented by James Lind but
practical model is invented by William
Henry.
Based on liquid manometer, having U
shaped tube. The pressure difference b/w
both the open U-shaped tube helped to
measure the speed of wind

Pitot Tube
 Advanced pressure
Anemometers is Pitot Tube

Pitot tube working on same principle

of Dine’s instrument but it is more
advanced in shape and Design.

Wind Vane:
Wind vane is another way used on
small airports to check the direction
of wind and speed of wind.
VELOCITY ANEMOMETER
Vane anemometer

Hot Wire Anemometer

Hot wire anemometer consist of a filament of tungsten which is heated to

raise it’s temperature after that air is flowing across it to cool down the wire.
The wire cooled with the flow of speed of air, reading is noted digitall y.

Tools used in 1950’s:

a) Laser Doppler Anemometer b) Ultrasonic Anemometer
 a) Laser Doppler Anemometer:

This type of anemometer is used beam of light which splits into two
beams one propagated out of anemometer and other is reflected
back to the device which creates a Doppler shift which help to
measure wind speed.

b) Ultrasonic Anemometer:

They measure the wind speed on the basis of sonic pulses which travel
b/w transducers (A device used to convert energy into different forms).
 RECENT ADVANCED TOOLS
a) Acoustic resonance anemometers
b)Ping-pong ball anemometers

a) Acoustic resonance anemometers

Invented by Savvas Kapartis and patented in 1999. Such type of anemometers used resonance of ultrasonic
waves for measuring wind speed.

a) Ping-pong ball anemometers

A tennis ball is hanged with a thread, when wind passes through it horizontally the speed with
which air blows is easily calculated by speed of tennis ball.
 TEMPERATURE MEASURING INSTRUMENT

a) Galileo Temperatire Instrument

Galileo invented the first documented thermometer in about 1592. It was an air thermometer
consisting of a glass bulb with a long tube attached. The tube was dipped into a cooled liquid and the
bulb was warmed, expanding the air inside. As the air continued to expand, some of it escaped. When
the heat was removed, the remaining air contracted causing the liquid to rise in the tube and indicating
a change in temperature. This type of thermometer is sensitive, but is affected by changes in
atmospheric pressure.

b) bimetallic temperature sensor

These thermometers contain no liquid but operate on the principle of unequal
expansion between two metals
Since different metals expand at different rates, one metal that is bonded to
another , will bend in one direction when heated and will bend in the opposite
direction when cooled (hence the term Bimetallic Thermometer or BiMets)
c)Thermometer
A thermometer is Greek word. It is the combination of two words Thermo Warm
Meter to measure. A thermometer is an instrument that measures the
temperature of a system in a quantitative way.

Working Principle

 When mercury gets hotter it expand (increase in sie) by an amount that directly relate to the temperature.
 As the temperature around the thermometer bulb heats up, the liquid rise in the glass tube
 When it is hot the liquie inside the thermometer will expand and rises in the tube and opposite occur when it is
cool

d)Liquid in glass thermometer

The Liquid-in-Glass Thermometer is a type of a thermometer used to measure temperature. The thermal expansion of
the liquid is the principle used to measure the temperature in the thermometer.

When the temperature increases, the liquid expands and then rises in the capillary tube in the thermometer.
 e) Infrared thermometers:
Infrared thermometers employ a lens to focus infrared light from an object onto a detector
known as a thermopile.
The thermopile gets hotter as it absorbs more and more infrared energy. The excess heat is
converted into electricity, which is transmitted to a detector which determines the temperature
of the object.

 The higher the temperature of an object, the more infrared radiation it emits.
 This mean the temperature of the object can be calculated by the amount of emitted infrared
radiation.

f) Thermoelectric thermometer
Thermo Electric Thermometer is a special device which measures high as well as low temperature. The
range in which it can measure the temp is nearly -200oc to 1600oc. Principle: It is based on the principle of
Seebeck effect. Construction and working of thermo electric thermometer.

A junction of thermocouple is placed inside a hard glass tube in which a junction of Thermocouple is
placed in such a way that both the wires are properly insulated from each other.

The other end of the thermocouple is place in ice and the galvanometer is used to measure the
current in the circuit. Now we have to measure the temperature of the hot junction. Hot junction is
placed inside the liquid. Current is passed through the thermocouple which we have to measure with
the help of galvanometer. By proper tuning or we can say that by proper calibration we can convert
the current into temperature.

g) Thermocouple
A Thermocouple is a sensor used to measure temperature. Thermocouples consist of two wire legs made
from different metals. The wires legs are welded together at one end, creating a junction. This junction is where
the temperature is measured. When the junction experiences a change in temperature, a voltage is created

.
 Working
A thermocouple is a temperature-measuring device consisting of two dissimilar conductors that
contact each other at one junction.
It produces a voltage when the temperature of one of the ends differs from the reference
temperature at other end of the circuit. Metal A Metal B Junction Voltmeter
 Rain Gauge used to measure Rainfall

3 Types of Rain Gauge

1)Standard Rain Gauge

Recording of rainfall using the standard or funnel
rain gauge is generally done manually. These
gauges work by catching the falling rain in a
funnel-shaped collector that is attached to a
measuring tube. According to the Spokane
National Weather Service office, these tubes are
usually 8 inches and have been in use for more
than a century. The diameter of the collector is 10
times that of the tube; thus, the rain gauge works
by magnifying the liquid by a factor of 10.
Magnifying the rain in this way allows precise
measurements down to one-hundredth of an inch.
Amounts that exceed the tube capacity are caught
in the outer shell of the gauge, allowing the
recorder to pour out the liquid in the tube and fill it
back up if needed.

2) Tipping Bucket Rain Gauge

Operation of a tipping bucket rain gauge is quite
different from the standard gauge. The receiving
funnel leads to one of two small buckets. Filling of
one bucket occurs at one-hundredth of an inch.
The result is a "tipping" of the liquid into the outer
shell of the gauge, triggering the second bucket to
takes it place. The process then repeats itself.
Allowing for precise measurement of rainfall
intensity and amount, this gauge has become
standard for wireless weather stations. According
to "Essentials of Meteorology" by C. Donald
Ahrens, "Each time a bucket tips, an electric
contact is made, causing a pen to register a
mark. ..." Today, wireless digital tipping bucket
gauges are very common, but they still use the
same basic technology.

3) Weighing Rain Gauge

According to the Albany, New York National
Weather Service office, the universal weighing
rain gauge is optimal for climatology use. This
is because of a vacuum that accounts for the
effects of wind, allowing more rain to enter the
gauge. These gauges are very precise in
measuring rainfall intensity as the weighing
mechanism at the bottom of the collector can
be used to measure depth and time
simultaneously. Recording is carried out much
in the same way as the older versions of the
tipping bucket gauges.
 Pressure measuring instrument

a)Barometer (General)

Altimeter ( On Aerodrome)
Pitot static tube( in aircraft)