Syllabus – lectures; Tuesdays 08:00–09:30 hrs, WER-1118, preliminary

Date Topic
17.10.23 Introduction / Structure and Composition of Atmosphere
24.10.23 Weather variables (temperature, pressure, wind, precipitation)
07.11.23 Heat and energy transfer (Laws, Earth’s Energy Balance, Greenhouse Effect, Seasons)
14.11.23 Water
21.11.23 Cloud formation (atmospheric thermodynamic) and Precipitation
28.11.23 Atmospheric Dynamics (Pressure, Wind, Local Wind Systems, Air Masses, Fronts)

05.12.23 Circulation (atmospheric & oceanic circulation, Middle Latitude Cyclones)

12.12.23 Climate Classification (record weather events, Koeppen System)
Paleoclimate and Climate Variability (Evolution of Earth’s Atmosphere, Earth’s Climate
19.12.23
Record, Climate Archives, internal and external drivers of climate variability)
09.01.24 Planetary Boundary Layer and urban climate (PBL structure, Urban Heat Island)
16.01.24 Weather Prognosis and Climate Projections (Approaches & Accuracy)
23.01.24 Anthropogenic Climate Change (Observed & Future changes)
30.01.24 Regional Climate Change
12.02.24 Written exam: 13:00 -14:30 hrs
1
Weather Variables
DWD-Broschüre: Das Wetter im Visier – Instrumente und Messnetze der Meteorologie
 Content
• Introduction
• Temperature
• Heat and temperature
• Thermometers
• Temperature measurements
• Temperature scales
• Pressure
• Force and pressure
• Atmospheric pressure
• Vertical distribution of pressure
• Barometers
• Pressure units
• Wind
• Measuring wind
• Reporting wind
• Precipitation
• Weather Stations
3
Introduction

• Weather results from atmospheric

changes
• Changes obeys certain rules, dictated
by the law of physics

• Law of conservation of energy

• Law of conservation of mass
• Law of conservation of
momentum

• Each describes a particular aspect of

the atmosphere
• and each requires that we measure
certain variables of the atmosphere

• Objective of the lecture will to be

provide an overview of these
variables
4
1. Temperature

• Of primary interest is the conservation of energy

Box 1.1

Atmosphere as a system

• In the atmosphere one form of energy is heat.

• Heat transfers are related to temperature differences
• We need to measure temperature as an integral part of weather observations
• Weather is largely the result of heat contrasts and heat transfers
5
 Heat and Temperature
• To explain heat and temperature we have to return to contacts and interactions on the
molecular level
• Atmosphere is a mixture of gases made up of molecules in motion
• Heat is the energy associated with this molecular motion
• Energy of motion we call kinetic energy
• Temperature is an indirect measurement of the average kinetic energy of the molecules
constituting the air
 Concept of air parcels

Faster molecules (higher temperature)

lose energy (cool down) by collision
with slower molecules (lower tem-
perature), which gain energy and
therefore, warm up.

 conduction
6
Random molecular motion in a volume of air
Thermometers

• How do measure temperature?

• Indirect measurements of average kinetic energy using
thermometers
• Liquid-in-glass-thermometer work on the basis that substances
expand or contract when temperature increases or decreases
• Many other types of thermometers exist, and all make use of a
property of matter to determine temperature indirectly.
• Extraction of different metals -> bimetallic strip
• Electric resistance is dependent of temperature –>Pt 100 resistance
thermometer
• Radiometers measure the radiation which is emitted by bodies
(temperature dependent)

7
 “Extreme Thermometers”
S: indicator rod (minimum thermometer)
E: narrow spot (maximum thermometer)
accuracy: 1/10 K

after Häckel H (1999) 4.ed.

8
http://www.lambrecht.net/uploads/media/1052_Leaflet_EN.pdf
 Resistance thermometers
• Also ‘resistance temperature detectors’ or
‘resistive thermal devices’ (RTDs) or ‘platinum
resistance thermometers’ (PRTs)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistance_thermometer
• Advantages: High accuracy, low drift, wide
operating range, suitable for precision
applications
• Sensitivity: 0.01°C
• Accuracy: ±0.05
• Commonly used
in remote and
automatic weather
stations and
radiosondes
9
www.yesinc.com/products/met-temp.htm
Measuring Temperature with Pt 100
Platinum has a low but nearly constant
resistance coefficient for all relevant
temperatures
(0.385 Ω K-1)

Resistance of these thermometers at 0°C: 100

Ω  Pt 100

Routine measurement of all temperatures at

automated weather stations (air temperature,
minimum and maximum temperature at
2 m above ground and 5 cm above ground,
soil temperatures in 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 cm
measuring depth)

10

Pictures from AMDA Sensorik Fortbildung (2006)

 Temperature
measurements
• Temperature measurements are
standardized, so that they can be
compared and mapped
• Weather stations always measure
temperature in the shade, to avoid
contamination by sunlight
• Measured in a shelter, which is
elevated (1.25 –) 2 m height above
a vegetated surface, to avoid
contamination by surface effects
• Shelter is painted white, and
ventilated, to limit the absorption of
sunlight and the concentration of
heat inside the box, which could
otherwise produce an artificially
high temperature
11
www.optics-shop.com/contents/de/d195.html
Sources and estimates of
error – Temperature
a) Errors in the international, national and working
standards (negligible)
b) Errors in comparisons made between the working,
travelling and/or check standards and the field
instruments in the laboratory (±0.1 K if the practice is
good)
c) Non-linearity, drift, repeatability and reproducibility
in the field thermometer and its transducer © Andreas Hoy, Wetterhütte Zinnwald
© Andreas Hoy, neue “Wetterhütte“,
d) Effectiveness of heat transfer between thermometer Oschatz
element and air in the thermometer shelter (very
small error in well-designed aspirated shelter, but may be
large otherwise)
e) Effectiveness of thermometer shelter (same temperature
as the air surrounding the shelter; difference between effective
and ineffective shelter ≥ 3°C)
f) Exposure (shelter is at a temperature which is representative of
the region to be monitored; otherwise large errors possible)

12
 Temperature scales
Units: °C = 5/9 (°F – 32°),
Celsius temperature scale
°F = [9/5 x (°C)] + 32° Fahrenheit temperature scale
K = °C + 273.15 Kelvin temperature scale
°C =K – 273.15 (scientific)

• Smallest possible temperature,

zero Kelvin (0 K) is called
Temperature „absolute zero“, and corresponds
to the theoretical state in which
all molecules have zero kinetic
energy, and therefore zero
temperature

http://www.windows2universe.org/physical_science/phy
sics/thermal/kelvin_temperature_scale.html 13
Radiosonde profiles

A large part of weather is dictated by what take places © Jörg Matschullat

aloft, as weather systems often extend up into
atmosphere and surface phenome are often driven by
upper air currents.
Therefore, is useful to obtain information about the
vertical structure of the atmosphere.

Helium-filled balloons are launched carrying instruments

that record weather variables up to 35 km.

These balloons are called radiosondes, since the

measurements are radioed back to a receiving station at
the surface.

Radiosonde being launched in

Lindenberg 14
Radiosonde
• Instrument intended to be
carried by a balloon through
the atmosphere
• Equipped with devices to
measure one or several
meteorological variables
(pressure, temperature, humidity,
etc.)
• Provided with a radio
transmitter for sending this
information to the
observing station.

http://www.richhoffmanclass.com/images/chapter1/radiosonde.gif
15
 2. Pressure

• Atmospheric changes, and therefore weather,

involve the movement of air , and the
redistribution of air masses in the atmosphere.
• Such redistribution obeys the law of
conservation of mass, which, in meteorology, is
expressed in terms of pressure.
• Mass is conserved in a system. It cannot be
created out of nothing and cannot be
destroyed: It can only enter or leave the system
(by chemical reaction, or by phase change).
• In meteorology, the distribution of mass in the
atmosphere is described by the distribution of
density, which is defined as mass per volume.
• Because density is difficult to measure, we
instead rely on measurement of pressure and
temperature to infer density.
• It is therefore important that we measure
pressure to analyze and predict the weather. 16
 Force and pressure

• We want to understand the nature of pressure.

• Air is a gas made up of molecules in motion, and
heat can be equated by the kinetic energy of
molecules.
• However, we also recognized that these
molecules constantly bump into each other.
• Loosely speaking, the amount of bumping is what
we call pressure.
• If the molecules bump into each other more
frequently, or if the collision themselves are
stronger, there is more pressure.
• Pressure relates to the collision between
molecules, which is not uniquely determined by
the speed of molecules, i.e., it is also a function
of the number of molecules in the volume, and
therefore the density of the air.

17
The ideal gas law

18
 Molecular view of atmospheric pressure

gravity random
motion

• Weight of all air molecules is propagated to surface

by random motion of molecules

• Random motion of molecules causes pressure to be

applied in all directions

EARTH SURFACE
Atmospheric
Pressure

• By analogy, we now consider the

weight of the entire atmosphere
applied onto Earth’s surface at sea
level.
• In a column of air extending from
Earth’s surface all the way up to the
top of the atmosphere, the
accumulated weight of all the air
pushed down on the surface.
• Recall that weight is a force, so
when we divide the weight of the
air by the area of the base of the
atmospheric column, we obtain the
pressure of the atmosphere, or
atmospheric pressure.
20
 Vertical distribution of pressure

• We can repeat the same exercise at some altitude above sea level, say, 3000 m.
• Air pressure at that altitude is determined by how much the air is compress due
to the accumulated weight of the overlying layers of air.
• Since there is necessarily less air above 3000 m than there is a above sea level,
air pressure will be less than at sea level.

21
A compressible atmosphere

22
Barometers and pressure units

• As the weather changes, air moves around, resulting in atmospheric changes at

a given location.
• We monitor these changes with an instrument that measures atmospheric
pressure, which we call barometers.
• Mean sea-level pressure:
p = 1.013x105 Pa = 1013 hPa
= 1013 mb
= 1 atm
= 760 mm Hg (torr)

23
Some useful
numbers

• Typical range at sea level 980 –

1030 hPa
• Average pressure at sea level
is 1013 hPa
• Top of the boundary layer 850
hPa
• Half of the atmospheric mass
at 500 hPa (5.5 km)
• Top of the troposphere at 250
hPa (her we find also the jet
streams)

24
3. Wind

• Wind direction is measured using

a wind vane
• Wind speed is measured with an
anemometer 25
 Wind Measurement
General measurement height: 10 m
Registration: >0.2 m sec-1
1 m sec-1 = 3.6 km h-1 = 1.9 knots
1 km h-1 = 0.54 knots = 0.28 m sec-1
1 knot = 0.52 m sec-1 = 1.86 km h-1
© Jörg Matschullat, wind vane and cup-
anemometer at the DWD-station Lindenberg

Wind speed Wind direction

26
visual.merriam-webster.com/earth/meteorology/...
 Wind sensors

3D-Ultrasound anemometer with CO2-detector from an

Eddy covariance set-up at the DWD-station Lindenberg

© Andreas Hoy, DWD station Zinnwald, ultrasound

anemometer
27
 • Wind gusts
Reporting the • Instantaneous wind
wind • Sustained wind

28
 Beaufort Scale Wind
speed
(km h-1) Bezeichnung
1 Still

1-5 Leiser Zug

6-11 Leichte Briese

12-19 Schwache Brise

20-28 Mäßige Briese

29-38 Frische Briese

39-49 Starker Wind

50-61 Steifer Wind

62-74 Stürmischer Wind

75-88 Sturm

89-102 Schwerer Sturm

103-117 Orkanartiger Sturm

118-133 Orkan
29
http://www.mountwashington.org/education/center/arcade/wind/beaufort.html
 Precipitation
Registration in mm rain water; 1 mm = 1 L m-2 or 10 m3 ha-1
Rain gauge network much denser than that of climate stations

30
http://www.shoalwater.nsw.gov.au/Education/precipitation.htm
 • We typically measure precipitation with a rain gauge,
of which there are two primary types.
• In a tipping bucket, water is collected by a funnel and
falls onto a tipping plate that tips when enough water
Precipitation has accumulated in the bucket.
• In a simpler type of rain gauge, a funnel also collects
raindrops and magnifies the rain accumulation into a
thinner cylinder.

31
 Hellmann rain gauge (pluviometer)
• Orifice: 200 cm2 and 1 m above ground in Germany (higher if high snow cover is to
be expected; highly variable from nation to nation)
• Resolution: 0.1 mm
• Reading time: 5:50 UTC (7:50 am summer time )

http://www.th-friedrichs.de/
TH_Friedrichs/site/engl/content/gr
after Häckel H (1999) 4.ed. 32
© Andreas Hoy, Zinnwald – rain gauge oup_7/HellmannRain.html
 Recording Precipitation
Tipping Bucket Rain Gauge Hellmann Precipitation Recorder
• Recording time: 1 to 31 days
• Temperature range: -20...+60 °C (with electrically-controlled heating)

www.munro
instruments
.co.uk

www.novalynx.
com/products-
rain-
after Häckel H (1999) 4.ed. http://www.lambrecht.net/index
33
gauges.html
.php?id=50&L=1
Criteria for light, moderate and heavy precipitation
intensity
Variable Range Intensity
i < 0.1 mm h–1 light
Drizzle 0.1 ≤ i < 0.5 mm h–1 moderate
i ≥ 0.5 mm h–1 heavy
i < 2.5 mm h–1 light
Rain (also 2.5 ≤ i < 10 mm h–1 moderate
showers) 10 ≤ i < 50 mm h–1 heavy
≥ 50 mm h–1 violent (intense, extreme)
Snow i < 1 mm h–1 (water equivalent) light

Guide for approximating the intensity of snow:

light: Snowflakes small and sparse (reduction in visibility by snow in the
absence of other obscuring phenomena: > 1000 meters)
moderate: Larger, more numerous flakes (reduction of visibility: 400 to 1000 m)
heavy: Numerous flakes of all sizes generally reducing visibility to below 400 m
34
Sources of Error – Precipitation
• Systematic wind field deformation above the gauge orifice: 2–10% for rain
and 10–50% for snow;
• Wetting losses
• Evaporation losses

http://www.meted.ucar.edu/hydro/precip_est/part1_ 35
measurement/print.htm
 • All instruments described above are set up in a
standardized fashion.
• Most are now automated (figure 1.19).
Weather stations
• Over the ocean, weather instruments are attached to
masts on buoys, which are themselves anchored to the
seafloor (figure 1.21).

36
WMO Guide to Meteorological Instruments and
Methods of Observation
WMO-No. 8 (2014 ed., updated 2017)
(https://library.wmo.int/doc_num.php?explnum_id=4147)

 Advice on good practice for

meteorological measurements and
observations to support the
activities stated below

Part I. Measurement of meteorological

variables
Part II. Observing systems
Part III. Space-based observations
Part IV. Quality assurance and management
of observing systems
37
Meteorological Observation Systems
Global Observation System is composed of a) surface-based subsystem
(in situ measurements) and b) space-based subsystem (remote-sensing
including space-borne systems)
• Surface-based subsystem: Surface synoptic station, upper-air station, climatological
station, etc.)
• Space-based subsystem: Spacecraft with on-board sounding missions and the
associated ground segment for command, control and data reception.

38
Measurement of upper-air variables
Upper-air measurements of temperature and © Jörg Matschullat

relative humidity are two of the basic

measurements used in the initialization of the
analyses of numerical weather prediction
models for operational weather forecasting

Sounding: Determination of one or several

upper-air meteorological variables by means
of instruments
carried aloft by balloon, aircraft, kite, glider,
rocket, etc.

39
 Satellite observations
• Typical meteorological satellites orbit the Earth
at elevations of ≈ 36,000 km or ≈ 850 km
• Obtain both images and quantitative information
(about surface features and the lowest 20 km of atmos.)
• Satellite measurements have both
horizontal and vertical spatial resolutions
 much less precise than surface-based
http://www.sciencephoto.com/images/
measurements download_lo_res.html?id=837300031

Operationally measured meteorological

quantities (varying resolution/accuracy):
a) Temperature profile, and temperature at the
cloud top and at the surface of the sea & land;
b) Humidity profile;
c) Wind at cloud level and at the ocean surface;
d) Liquid and total water and precipitation rate;
e) Net radiation and albedo;
f) Cloud type and height of cloud top;
g) Total ozone;
h) Coverage and the edge of ice and snow.
http://www.dwd.de/bvbw/... 40
 Radar Measurements
• Used mostly to observe hydrometeors
• Meteorological radars: electromagnetic pulses in
the 3–10 GHz frequency range (10–3 cm wavelength)
• Designed to detect and map areas of precipitation,
measuring their intensity and motion, and their type
• Higher frequencies are used to detect smaller www.met.rdg.ac.uk/radar/camra.html
hydrometeors, such as cloud or even fog droplets
• At lower frequencies, radars are capable of
detecting variations in the refractive index of
clear air, and they are used for wind profiling

Meteorological applications
• Severe weather detection, tracking
and warning
• Surveillance of synoptic and mesoscale
weather systems;
• Estimation of precipitation amounts
http://www.dwd.de/bvbw/... 41
 Take home message – Weather variables
• Temperature and humidity
(2 m above ground, with solar radiation
shields)
• Precipitation (1 m above ground,
tipping bucket of 0.1 mm)
• Wind speed and direction
(10 m above ground)
• Global radiation
(0…1300 W/m²)

• Figures and Boxes without

citation are from Hakim &
Patoux: Weather- A Concise
Introduction (Second edition,
Cambridge, 2022)

42
http://www.campbellsci.com/weather-climate