Abstract
THE present revised edition of Blanford's meteorological tables, prepared for the routine work ot the Indian meteorological service, contains in all sixteen tables, of which the first and last pairs are for the interconversion of. barometric heights and of temperatures in the English and metric systems. The remaining tables are in English units. The relationship i metre = 39.37079 inches, adopted from the international tables, is an example of fictitious accuracy which might be discarded in view of the values found by Rogers (1893), 39.370155, and Benoit (1902), 39.370113. The same criticism applies to the expressions for the corrections to the barometric height H, for the variation of gravity with latitude (λ), and altitude (h), viz. 0.00259 cos 2λ H and 5.97 x 10-8h H. The arrangement in table vii., for reducing the barometer to sea-level, or for finding differences of height, is excellent. The logarithms are tabulated, and the temperature and humidity terms have been combined by assuming a constant value for the mean air-pressure occurring in the latter; the result is that the complicated process involved in applying the Smithsonian or international tables has vanished, and the desired value may be obtained by a simple calculation as accurately as the observations ordinarily allow. It is, however, not necessary to apply the latitude correction to the barometer readings in finding differences of height.
Tables for the Reduction of Meteorological Observations.
Prepared by Dr. G. C. Simpson., under the direction of Dr. Gilbert T. Walker, F.R.S. Pp. ix + 95. (Calcutta: Government Printing Office, 1910.)
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
GOLD, E. Tables for the Reduction of Meteorological Observations . Nature 84, 326 (1910). https://doi.org/10.1038/084326a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/084326a0