Meteorology

(PD) Image: NASA
The six global cells of air circulation.

Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the processes and phenomena of the atmosphere, including weather studies and forecasting.

Meteorology, climatology, atmospheric physics, and atmospheric chemistry are sub-disciplines of the atmospheric sciences, which in turn is a sub-discipline of Earth science.

Categories and sub-disciplines of meteorology

Meteorology has certain major categories, including but not limited to:

• Boundary layer meteorology: The study of processes in the atmospheric layer directly above Earth's surface, known as the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL)

• Mesoscale meteorology: The study of atmospheric phenomena within a vertical scale that starts at the Earth's surface and includes the atmospheric boundary layer, the troposphere, the tropopause, and the lower section of the stratosphere. The majority of Earth's observed weather is in the troposphere.

• Physical meteorology: The study of physical aspects of the atmosphere such as rain, thunderstorms, pressure fronts, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc.

• Synoptic meteorology: The analysis and forecast of large-scale weather systems

• Dynamic meteorology: Focuses on the theoretical laws of physics pertaining to the atmosphere

Meteorology also has many specialty sub-disciplines such as:

• Weather forecasting
• Aviation meteorology
• Agricultural meteorology
• Atmospheric chemistry
• Air pollution dispersion modeling

History

Greek philosopher and scientist Aristotle (384–322 BC) was the first to use the word meteorology in his book Meteorologica (ca. 340 BC) which summarized the knowledge of that time about atmospheric phenomena. He wrote about clouds, rain, snow, wind, and climatic changes, and although many of his findings later proved to be incorrect, many were insightful.

Although systematic recording of weather data began in about the fourteenth century, the lack of weather measuring instruments made only visual observations possible at that time. The real scientific study of atmospheric phenomena started later with the invention of devices to measure weather data: the thermometer in about 1600 for measuring temperature; the barometer for measuring atmospheric pressure in 1643 by Evangelista Torricelli (1608-1647), Italian mathematician and physicist, from an idea by Galileo Galilei (1564-1642); the anemometer for measuring wind speed in 1667; and the hair hygrometer for measuring humidity in 1780.

In 1793, John Dalton published a treatise on extensive meteorological observations in the area of Manchester, England, with a second edition in 1834, containing thousands of observations and establishing him as a pioneer meteorologist. In 1802, the first cloud classification system was formulated, and in 1805, a wind scale was first introduced.

These measuring instruments and new ideas made possible gathering of actual data from the atmosphere giving the basis for scientific theories for properties of the atmosphere (pressure, temperature, humidity, etc.) and its governing physical laws.

In the early 1840s, the first weather forecasting services started with the use of the telegraph to transmit meteorological information. In the Netherlands, the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (Dutch: KNMI) was founded in 1854.

By the 1940s, upper-air measurements of pressure, temperature, wind and humidity clarified more about the vertical properties of the atmosphere. In the 1950s, radar became important for detecting precipitation over a remote area.

In 1960, the first meteorological satellite was launched to provide 24-hour monitoring of weather events worldwide. These satellites now give three-dimensional data to high-speed computers for faster and more precise weather predictions. Computers still have their capacity limits and weather prediction models still contain many uncertainties. Incidentally, investigations about these uncertainties led to the discovery, by Edward Norton Lorenz, of chaos as a property of some complex systems . In this context, it is perhaps not surprising that many complicated issues remain at the forefront of meteorological research, including air pollution, climate change, ozone hole, and acid rain issues.