The Barometer Handbook
Subtitle: A Modern Look At Barometers And Applications Of Barometric Pressure
Publisher: Starpath Publications
Published: Nay 22, 2009
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 248
ISBN-13: 9780914025122
Description: The barometer remains the most important tool for evaluating and predicting the weather. This book explains why knowing accurate values of the atmospheric pressure can improve this process and benefit all applications. Ways to evaluate and calibrate aneroid and electronic barometers using readily available data by Internet or telephone are clearly described. Tactical applications to marine navigation are covered. The book also includes worldwide average monthly pressures and their standard deviations. 

With the exception of trained meteorological crews, barometers in the past were used at sea primarily to learn if the pressure was going up or down, and whether it was doing this rapidly or slowly. And from this we made an educated guess of a likely consequence, usually in conjunction with other observations. Outside of professional marine use, little effort was made to know the true pressure for several reasons. We did not know what to do with it if we had it, and more often we could not get it if we wanted it, because most barometers were not calibrated. 

This has changed. We now have many valuable applications of accurate pressure, and we also have affordable ways to get it, and we have convenient ways to prove our instruments work properly. The main goal of this book is to show how all this comes about, and to give more insight into this fascinating, venerable instrument that has been with us for 150 years. 

Another goal is to introduce users to the new breed of electronic devices that are in the process of revolutionizing how we do weather at sea. We also re-introduce mariners to several classic aneroid instruments that are highly accurate and tested at sea for over 70 years, and why we benefit from having both a calibrated aneroid and an electronic barometer on board.
Table of contents: title: Preface; title: Acknowledgements; title: INTRODUCTION
label: 1.; title: 1.1 Overview; title: 1.2 What is a Barometer?; title: 1.3 What does it Measure?; title: ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE
label: 2.; title: 2.1 An Ocean of Air; title: 2.2 Units; title: 2.3 Pressure vs. Altitude; title: 2.4 The Standard Atmosphere; title: 2.5 Pressure on Weather Maps; title: READING & CARE OF BAROMETERS
label: 3.; title: 3.1 Aneroid Barometers; title: 3.2 Errors in Aneroid Barometers; title: 3.3 Electronic Barometers; title: 3.4 Errors in Electronic Barometers; title: BAROMETER CALIBRATION
label: 4.; title: 4.1 What is Calibration?; title: 4.2 Setting vs. Calibration; title: 4.3 Sources of Accurate pressure; title: 4.4 How to Find your Elevation; title: 4.5 Calibration Procedures; title: 4.6 Test your Barometer in a Skyscraper; title: 4.7 Using a Weather Map to Check your Barometer; title: 4.8 Commercial Calibration Services; title: BAROMETERS & WEATHER FORECASTING
label: 5.; title: 5.1 Significance of the Actual Pressure; title: 5.2 What Causes the Pressure to Change; title: 5.3 Estimating Wind Speed from Pressure Reports; title: 5.4 Rules Associated with Wind Directions; title: 5.5 Trends and their Meanings; title: 5.6 Diurnal Variation; title: 5.7 Icons on Electronic Barometers; title: ROLE OF ACCURATE PRESSURE IN MARINE WEATHER
label: 6.; title: 6.1 Perspective; title: 6.2 Target Pressures; title: 6.3 Checking Weather Maps and Model Forecasts (GIRB); title: 6.4 Storm Warnings in the Tropics; title: OTHER ROLES OF ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE
label: 7.; title: 7.1 Pressure and Tide Height; title: 7;2 Health and the Barometer; title: 7.3 The Barometer in Sports; title: 7.4 The Barometer in Science; title: BAROMETER SELECTION
label: 8.; title: 8.1 The Choices; title: 8.2 Choosing an Aneroid Barometer; title: 8.3 Choosing an Electronic Barometer; title: 8.4 Sensors vs. Barometers; title: ALTIMETERS
label: 9.; title: 9.1 The Hypsometric Equation; title: 9.2 Climbing and Hiking; title: 9.3 Aviation; title: 9.4 Skydiving; title: 9.5 Barometers in GPS Units; title: 9.6 Mining and Caving; title: WORLDWIDE MONTHLY MEAN PRESSURES
label: 10.; title: 10.1 The Data; title: 10.2 Overview of World Pressures; title: 10.3 Obtaining Mean Pressure Data from the NCDC; title: FURTHER READING; title: APPENDICES; title: A1. Pressure Units Conversions; title: A2. The Standard Atmosphere; title: A3. Finding Sea Level Pressure from Station Pressure; title: A4. Using Spreadsheet Software for Calibration Analysis; title: A5. Forecasts Using Pressure and Wind; title: A6. Density Altitude; title: INDEX; title: About the Author