September 1, 2000

In this first field exercise of the atmospheric environment section of the course, we will simply “inventory” the instruments that are currently recording data at the NWS Cooperative Observation Site (co-op) on the south campus of the university. It is important for the student to learn to recognize diverse meteorological instrumentation and to realize the site requirements that are needed for the instruments to function properly.

We will walk from Pearson Hall to south campus and visit the co-op site. Once there, we will discuss the various meteorological variables that are measured by the instrumentation. We will also discuss the placement of those instruments. Each student is responsible for defining the following terms. These definitions are due at the next class meeting.

Anemometer:

Pyranometer:

Thermistor:

Hygrometer:

Data logger:

Evaporation pan:

Rain gage:

Storage module: