Meteorological instrumentation

Many attempts had been made prior to the 15th century to construct adequate equipment to measure atmospheric variables.

These were sent throughout the Joseon dynasty of South Korea as an official tool to assess land taxes based upon a farmer's potential harvest.

[1] In 1662, Sir Christopher Wren invented the mechanical, self-emptying, tipping bucket rain gauge.

In 1714, Gabriel Fahrenheit creates a reliable scale for measuring temperature with a mercury-type thermometer.

A pyranometer is a type of actinometer used to measure broadband solar irradiance on a planar surface and is a sensor that is designed to measure the solar radiation flux density (in watts per metre square) from a field of view of 180 degrees.

A ceilometer is a device that uses a laser or other light source to determine the height of a cloud base.

A ceiling balloon is used by meteorologists to determine the height of the base of clouds above ground level during daylight hours.

A disdrometer is an instrument used to measure the drop size distribution and velocity of falling hydrometeors.

SODAR (SOnic Detection And Ranging) is a meteorological instrument as one form of wind profiler, which measures the scattering of sound waves by atmospheric turbulence.

Sodar systems are used to measure wind speed at various heights above the ground, and the thermodynamic structure of the lower layer of the atmosphere.

[7] A thirty-year average of a location's weather observations is traditionally used to determine the station's climate.