|
|
|
|
Micropluviometer Answer
Wed Jul 02, 2003
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton for The Weather Notebook. Last month we posed a Brainstorm with a couple
of technical terms, but apparently not technical enough, as we got loads of correctand
creative answers. The question was, "What's a micropluviometer,?"
Stacie Lucas of Albuquerque, NM, takes a stab at it: Micropluviometer might measure size of
raindrops.
You're definitely on the right track, Stacie. Ann-Claire Anderson from Waco, Texas explains
it this way: It's a teeny tiny rain gauge. OK, not exactly. It's a rain gauge for measuring
teeny tiny amounts of precipitation.
Thomas Wright, a WBFO, Buffalo, listener agrees: Micropluviometer is a gauge that will measure
really small amounts of rain.
Okay, now that we know what it is, how does it work? Ken Irving of the University of Alaska,
Fairbanks tells one way: I believe it works on the principle where they have a heated pad,
and... when rain or other precipitation falls on it, it changes temperature because the heated
pad evaporates the moisture, which causes cooling.
Shaun Scholer of Carmel, Indiana, even gives us a etymology and history lesson:
The word "micropluviometer comes from the French word "pluviomètre", and the word originates
Latin word "pluvia", which means "rain". Perhaps the earliest record of the pluviometer comes
from the Korean king Sejong. King Sejong had a pluviometer built in 1441 to aid in the
recording of droughts and floods for future agricultural planning.
But to NH State Representative Art Pelletier, it's all much ado about nothing: It's a cheap
word for a very sensitive rain gauge.
Thanks to everyone who wrote or called. The Weather Notebook comes to you through grants from
The National Science Foundation, and Subaru of America.
|
|
