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Meteorology, climatology, atmospheric physics and atmospheric chemistry are sub-disciplines of the atmospheric sciences.
Also refer to the timeline of meteorology
The term meteorology goes back to the book Meteorologica (about 340 BC) by AristotleAristotle ( Greek Αριστοτλης Aristotelēs) ( 384 BCE March 7, 322 BCE) was a Greek scientist and philosopher. Along with Plato, he is often considered to be one of the two most influential philo, who combined observations with speculation as to the origin of celestial phenomena. The GreekThe Greek language ( /Elini'k{/) is an Indo-European language which has existed from around the 14th century BC in the Cretan inscriptions called Linear B. Mycenaean Greek of this period is distinguished from later Classical or Ancient Greek of the 8th ce word meteoron refers to things "high in the sky", that is between Earth and the realm of the stars, while logos means "study". A similar work, called "Book of Signs", was published by TheophrastusTheophrastus the successor of Aristotle in the Peripatetic school, a native of Eresus in Lesbos, was born c. His original name was Tyrtamus but he later became known by the nickname "Theophrastus," given to him, it is said, by Aristotle to indicate the gr, a pupil of Aristotle. It was centered more on predicting the weather by interpreting established celestial phenomena, such as a haloHalos are optical phenomena that appear near or around the Sun or Moon, and sometimes near other strong light sources such as street lights. There are many types of halos, but they are mostly caused by ice crystals in cold cirrus clouds located high (5-10 around the moon, without asking for explanations.
Further progress in the meteorological field had to wait until accurate instruments were available. GalileoGalileo Galilei ( Pisa, February 15, 1564 Arcetri, January 8, 1642), was a Tuscan astronomer, philosopher, and physicist who is closely associated with the scientific revolution. His great achievements include perfecting the telescope, a variety of astron constructed a thermometerA thermometer is a device used to measure temperatures or temperature changes. Kinds of thermometers There are many different thermometers relying on different principles. These include: Thermistors Thermocouples Mercury-in-glass thermometers Bi-metal mec in the 1500sCenturies: 15th century 16th century 17th century Decades: 1450s 1460s 1470s 1480s 1490s 1500s 1510s 1520s 1530s 1540s 1550s Years: 1500 1501 1502 1503 1504 1505 1506 1507 1508 1509 1510 Events and Trends Leonardo da Vinci paints the Mona Lisa External li, followed by TorricelliTorricelli can refer to the following: Evangelista Torricelli- Italian physicist Robert Torricelli- former American politician Torricelli languages is a a subgroup of the Papuan languages.'s invention of the barometer in 1643. The dependence of atmospheric pressure on height was first shown by Blaise Pascal and René Descartes. The anemometer for measuring wind speed was constructed in 1667 by Robert Hooke, while Horace de Saussure completed this list of the most important meteorological instruments in 1780 with the hair hygrometer, which measures humidity.
Other advances that are usually thought of as part of the progression of physics were Robert Boyle's investigation of the dependence of gas volume on pressure which lead to thermodynamics and Benjamin Franklin's kite experiments with lightning.
The first essentially correct explanation of global circulation was the 1735 study by George Hadley of the Trade Winds, which gave rise to calling the tropical cell of zonal mean atmospheric circulation the " Hadley cell". In 1835, Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis recognized that the rotation of Earth causes a velocity-dependent force on bodies in the reference frame of a nonrotating Earth.
Synoptic weather observations were still hindered by the difficulty of establishing certain weather characteristics such as clouds or wind. These were solved when Luke Howard and Francis Beaufort introduced their systems for classifying clouds ( 1803) and wind speeds ( 1806), respectively. The real turning point however was the invention of the telegraph in 1843 that allowed exchange of weather information with unprecedented speed.Early in the 20th century, theoretical studies of atmospheric phenomena usually were performed analytically, that is by taking the fluid-dynamical equations that govern atmospheric flow, simplifying them by neglecting lesser terms, and looking for solutions to these equations. For example, Vilhelm Bjerknes developed the model that explains the generation, intensification and ultimate decay (the life cycle) of midlatitude cyclones, introducing the idea of fronts, that is, sharply defined boundaries between air masses.
Starting in the 1950s, numerical experiments with computers became feasible. The first weather forecasts derived this way used barotropic (that means, single-vertical-level) models, and could successfully predict the large-scale movement of midlatitude Rossby waves, that is, the pattern of atmospheric lows and highs .
In the 1960s, the chaotic nature of the atmosphere was first understood by Edward Lorenz, founding the field of chaos theory. The mathematical advances achieved here later filtered back to meteorology and made it possible to describe the limits of predictability inherent in atmospheric modelling. This is known as the butterfly effect, because the growth of disturbances over time means that even one as minute as the flapping of a butterfly's wings could much later cause a large disturbance to form somewhere else.
In 1960, the launch of TIROS-1, the first successful weather satellite marked the beginning of the age where weather information is available globally. Weather satellites along with more general-purpose Earth-observing satellites circling the earth at various altitudes have become an indispensable tool for studying a wide range of phenomena from forest fires to El Niño.
In recent years, climate models have been developed that feature a resolution comparable to older weather prediction models. These climate models are used to investigate long-term climate shifts, such as what effects might be caused by human emission of greenhouse gases.