Abbreviation for visual flight rules, but commonly used to refer to the relatively favorable weather and/or flight conditions to which these rules apply.

An absolute pyhrliometer, developed by C.G. Abbott, in which the radiation-sensing element is a blackened water-calorimeter.

In physics, any process in which the flux density (or power, amplitude, intensity, illuminance, etc.) of a "parallel beam" of energy decreases with increasing distance from the source. Attenuation is always due to the action of the transmitting medium its ...

A method of upper air observation consisting of an evaluation of the wind speed and direction, temperature, pressure, and humidity aloft by means of a balloon-borne radiosonde tracked by radar or a radio theodolite.

Same as radiation pattern. Anticyclone-An area of high atmospheric pressure which has a closed circulation that is anticyclonic (clockwise in northern hemisphere and counterclockwise in southern hemisphere).

A wave resulting from the action of wind on a water surface.

A white disk 12" or more in diameter which is lowered into the sea to estimate transparency of the water. The depths are noted at which it first disappears when lowered and reappears when raised.

An instrument which determines the black-body temperature of a substance by measuring its thermal radiation.

An instrument for measuring the pressure of gases and vapors. A mercury barometer is a type of manometer.

A type of precipitation composed of unbranched crystals in the form of needles, columns, or plates. Usually has a very slight downward motion and may fall from a cloudless sky.

A radiosonde whose carrier wave is modulated by audio-frequency signals whose frequency is controlled by the sensing elements of the instrument.

See hydrologic accounting.

A mercury barometer designed for use aboard ship. The instrument is of the fixed-cistern type (see Kew barometer). The mercury tube is constructed with a wide bore for its upper portion and with a capillary bore for its lower portion. This is done to incr ...

The part of a measuring instrument which responds directly to changes in the environment.

A hypothetical, ideal body which absorbs completely all incident radiation. independent of wavelength and direction. No actual substance behaves as a true black body, although platinum black and other soots rather closely approximate this ideal. However, ...

A form of data transmission in which the bits of each character are sent one at a time along a single communication path. Compare to parallel data transmission.

A photometer that measures the received intensity of a distance tight source.

The state of the weather with respect to its effect upon the kindling and spreading of forest fires.

An increase in the central pressure of a pressure system; opposite of a deepening. More commonly applied to a low rather than a high.

A unit of power equal to one joule per second or 10' ergs per second.