Observations & History

Question 1

How many land stations does Met Office have?

Answer 1

> 200

Question 2

What separation of land stations is Met Office?

Answer 2

40 km

Question 3

Land stations are referred to as

Answer 3

Automated Weather Stations

Question 4

Name of Manchester’s automatic weather station

Answer 4

Whitworth Observatory

Question 5

Sea surface stations are powered by

Answer 5

Solar energy

Question 6

How many stations over the sea?

Answer 6

<20

Question 7

How far up do radiosondes measure?

Answer 7

~25 km

Question 8

How do radiosondes infer wind speed?

Answer 8

GPS

Question 9

What do radiosondes measure?

Answer 9

Temperature, pressure, humidity

Question 10

What does radar stand for?

Answer 10

Radio detection and ranging

Question 11

What do radars measure?

Answer 11

Precipitation

Question 12

What does the radar doppler effect measure?

Answer 12

Wind speeds

Question 13

When was the first meteorological satellite?

Answer 13

1960

Question 14

Geostationary satellites have ___ temporal resolution and ___ spatial resolution

Answer 14

High, low

Question 15

How many geostationary satellites give coverage of whole earth

Answer 15

5 or 6

Question 16

Altitude of polar-orbiting satellites

Answer 16

700-800 km

Question 17

Orbit time of polar orbiting satellite

Answer 17

100 minutes

Question 18

Altitude of geostationary satellites

Answer 18

36,000 km

Question 19

Thin cloud (cirrus) and night time observations not good for ___ wavelengths

Answer 19

Visible

Question 20

Wavelength directly related to altitude of cloud

Answer 20

Infrared

Question 21

Passive sensors monitor radiation such as

Answer 21

Visible, infrared and microwave

Question 22

Active sensors ___ radiation

Answer 22

Emit

Question 23

Active sensor retrievals require

Answer 23

Calibration

Question 24

Visible imagery gives a high amount of ___

Answer 24

Detail

Question 25

Four processes in forecast

Answer 25

Observation, computer model, human forecaster, end user

Question 26

Modern meteorology began in

Answer 26

Norway

Question 27

Who began modern meteorology?

Answer 27

Bjerknes

Question 28

Two components needed for forecast

Answer 28

Initial observations and sufficient knowledge of the physical laws

Question 29

Who tried to do the “human computer” approach?

Answer 29

Richardson

Question 30

When was the first computer-generated forecast?

Answer 30

1950

Question 31

How many land surface observations are made globally?

Answer 31

100,000

Question 32

How many sea surface observations are made globally?

Answer 32

2,000

Question 33

How many radiosonde sites globally per day?

Answer 33

1,000

Question 34

How many aircraft observations per day?

Answer 34

300,000

Question 35

How many wind profilers globally?

Answer 35

4,000

Question 36

How many satellite observations per day?

Answer 36

1.5 million

Question 37

What is an analysis?

Answer 37

A model observation merge

Question 38

Forecasts always begin with an

Answer 38

Analysis

Question 39

The analysis is adjusted according to…

Answer 39

Observations

Question 40

Two masses conserved in the atmosphere

Answer 40

Water and air

Question 41

Forecasts have improved by roughly 1 day every ___ years

Answer 41

10

Question 42

Examples of imperfect knowledge of initial conditions

Answer 42

Resolution too low, instrument error

Question 43

Examples of imperfect computer model

Answer 43

Need more powerful computers for higher resolution, better understanding of physics

Question 44

Why processes are parameterised?

Answer 44

Not well understood, not measured, smaller than grid box

Question 45

Example of chaos theory

Answer 45

Model is sensitive to the initial conditions

Question 46

When one point diverges from another

Answer 46

Bifurcation

Question 47

Chaos theory limits forecasts to

Answer 47

14 days