If "Mr. Wen" came to this world--
Demystifying the weather family "the most familiar stranger"
Today, we can easily get weather information. As long as you take out your phone, you can see real-time weather data-the temperature is 30 ℃, the northwest wind is 3, and the humidity is 12%... So do you want to go out, or do you want to bring an umbrella? With these data, you can more scientifically arrange all activities that may be affected by the weather in work and life.
But many people don't know what kind of journey these weather observation data have gone through from collection to reaching every public hand. Today we come to reveal the "most familiar stranger" in the weather family-"Mr. Temperature", taking him as an example to show the wonderful journey of weather observation data.
The journey begins at the observatory.
On my country's 9.6 million square kilometers of land, there are 2,423 national observatories and more than 60,000 regional observatories. In the national observatory, there is generally an observation field with an area of 25 meters by 25 meters. The surrounding area is open and flat. The white-painted fence surrounds it in a circle, and it is planted with a uniform of no more than 20 centimeters. Grass layer.
In the observing field, the observing equipment holds their positions and is responsible for "capturing" the various meteorological elements and phenomena in the atmospheric environment. Observers often say "temperature, pressure, humidity, wind and rain" and "total direct net dispersion", that is, temperature, pressure, humidity, wind direction and wind speed, rainfall and total radiation, direct radiation, net radiation, scattered radiation, reflected radiation, and of course visibility. , Cloud and other observation items.
Previously, the container where the temperature was "born" was a glass rod. Like mercury thermometers that are commonly used to measure body temperature, there is mercury in the glass rod. Mercury will enlarge when heated and shrink when cooled, which is the principle of "heat expansion and contraction" in our physics class.
The change in the volume of mercury brought about a change in the scale of the glass rod, and the temperature was read by the observer to read the data.
However, we have recently ushered in good news: from April 1 this year, my country’s ground observation will be fully automated. In this way, the "birth" of temperature is much easier, and it can more accurately represent the real temperature in the atmosphere.
Zhang Xin, a senior engineer at the Meteorological Observation Center of the China Meteorological Administration, told reporters that if automated observation mainly frees manpower and improves operating efficiency, then the main research direction of intelligent observation is to improve data accuracy. At present, automated observation indicators have reached the qualified line, forming an automated, intensive, and standardized business system. The goal of intelligence is to keep improving, to further improve the accuracy of observation data.
According to the new method, the glass rod will be replaced by a metal-platinum resistance. The resistance value of platinum resistance will change at the same time as the temperature changes, so meteorological science and technology workers have come up with a good way: find the relationship between resistance value and air temperature, establish a model, as long as the resistance value is converted into air temperature Value, the temperature change can be inferred by the change of platinum resistance.
According to meteorological experts, platinum resistance itself is an electronic component, so the temperature value can be measured directly through the circuit in real time, eliminating the manual reading of data and reducing the possibility of many errors.
When the resistance value signal is converted into a voltage signal, a collector like a box behind the sensor can collect the electronic signals including the temperature.
At this time, most other members of the weather family, such as air pressure and humidity, also have convenient and intelligent sensor devices, which are collected together through the collector.
At this point, the weather family members gathered. At this time, they can take the first step of the trip-from the outdoor observation field, to the business computer of the meteorological officer's duty room.
Don't look at this long road, but it is very important. The vehicles on this section of the road have been replaced with current optical fibers from the previous wires. Not only has the transmission efficiency been improved, the error rate has been reduced, and the lightning protection effect has also been enhanced.
After arriving at the first destination, the business computer, the weather family members can automatically enter a program called the ground comprehensive observation business software without having to manually input by the observer. For this program, various observation data are sorted and processed by different categories, and the weather family members need to pass an important "checkpoint" here-quality control.
What is quality control? For example, when it rains or hails, the temperature will generally drop, but if the value of "Mr. Temperature" increases or does not change, then there may be a problem; or, the weather has not changed, but the "temperature" 10 minutes ago The difference between the value of Mr. A and the current "Mr. Temperature B" is too large, which also means that there is a problem and will be labeled as "question" or "error".
The members of the weather family who have successfully passed the "checkpoint" can be boarded and sorted in the ground comprehensive observation business software, and then they can take the train to the next station, the provincial meteorological information center.
There, members of the weather family from all over the province ushered in another quality control "checkpoint." This hurdle mainly tests the continuity of space. For example, "Mr. Temperature A" and "Mr. Temperature B" were born at observatories 5 kilometers apart, but the values are quite different, so they will be marked as "questionable".
The same story is staged again, and members of the weather family who pass the assessment are eligible to embark on a further journey-and finally arrive at the National Meteorological Information Center.
At this station, the faces of the weather family members are more diverse. Not only are there data from various ground observation stations, but also various other observation equipment. The staff of the National Meteorological Information Center use the processing system to organize, classify, and store them again, and push the packaged data to different users as needed.
For example, the data needed by weather forecasters will come to the National Meteorological Center, and the data needed by climate prediction experts will come to the National Climate Center. Of course, "Mr. Wen" is one of the most widely used members of the weather family, and his figure is everywhere.
There is still a lot of data that every ordinary person needs to look at when arranging production and life, so it will be sent to the public weather service center, and after visual processing, it will become part of a beautiful and easy-to-understand data product, and some will go through some The company's personalized processing will eventually appear in everyone's mobile weather service software.
Over the past few decades, this long road has become more and more demanding on technical conditions, but the time taken by Mr. Temperature from the observatory to the public has become shorter and shorter, and the manpower consumed has become less and less.
China Youth Daily · China Youth Daily reporter Qiu Chenhui Correspondent Zhang Gemiao Source: China Youth Daily
June 23, 2020 version 12