Monitoring the Weather – More Relevant than Ever

Weather and rainfall monitoring networks are becoming increasingly important in today’s world, as they are essential for our understanding of climate change and indeed for our very survival. Because food and water
resources are powerful determinants of how economies develop, accurate observations of weather and climate are of vital importance.

Although both weather and climate affect every aspect of our daily lives, the two terms should not be confused. Weather is the state of the atmosphere at a given time and place, with respect to variables such as temperature, precipitation, wind velocity, and barometric pressure, whereas climate is the overall average of the prevailing meteorological conditions in a particular area, incorporating its variations over time.

The effects that natural disasters such as volcanic emissions can have on economies and infrastructures cannot have escapednotice recently. The use of satellite imaging and data is vital for severe weather situations,
especially in rapidly occurring explosive events, such as the recent volcanic eruptions in Iceland, during which pollutants were discharged into the upper atmosphere. In this instance, it was vital to use all the latest
satellite visualisation images and upper atmosphere measuring technologies in order to map and model the dispersion of volcanic ash across Northern Europe.

Basic monitoring
Instruments have been available for measuring weather parameters since Victorian times. Much of this equipment, such as copper rain gauges and thermometers, was manually read and was historically used to measure trends so that long term data could be analysed. Data continues to be collected in this manner and these ‘old fashioned’ instruments are still used in great numbers, especially, owing to lack of power and financial constraints, in developing countries. The data obtained from these simple devices is still valuable today, as it represents the local conditions for the site and for the user, provides reliable ‘ground truth’ data for modelling, and forms the backdrop for many larger modern meteorological monitoring networks worldwide.