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Find the tipping bucket rain gauge. What does the Bureau of Meteorology use these to measure? A. How much _ _ _ _ falls in an h _ _ r Now it’s your turn Use our weather instruments carefully to find and record data for today’s date __/__/____ 1. The temperature now is: ____________ Look through the cutaway side. Does this remind you of a piece of playground equipment? (Hint: it needs weight at both ends to keep working!) °C 2. Is the temperature now the same as on the signal mast? Your teacher can help. ______________________________________ ______________________________________ 3. Barometers measure the atmospheric pressure (see page 7). The atmospheric pressure today is: ______________hPa The rain gauge has two buckets with each holding 0.2mm of rain, so that as one bucket empties, the other is ready to be filled. This means it keeps tipping from side to side and doesn’t stop as long as it’s raining. 4. The amount of precipitation, or rain, can be measured in many different types of rain gauge. How much rain has fallen? ______________mm. 12 11 The Sun The Sun is the powerhouse behind the weather on every planet in our Solar System. Heat energy from the Sun causes air to heat and rise. As air cools, it falls. Old and new Old: If you visit the nearby Bureau of Meteorology’s instrument enclosure you will see where Sydney’s weather measurements have been taken since 1858. Why do you think there are there several of each type of rain gauge? The never-ending movement of air called w_ _ _ causes the weather we experience every day across the entire planet. What is measured at this site? Did you know? Some winds even have names! Zephyr, mistral and zonda are just a few. Can you find any others? Back at school Look up the Beaufort scale on the web. What does it measure and why is it useful? 5 Wind is no longer measured here. Can you think of a good site to measure wind? 18 5. A wind vane tells us which direction the wind is blowing from. Today the wind is blowing from the _______________ 6. Look at the flags on the flag staff. Which direction are they blowing? ______________ In the exhibition Find the exhibit called ‘What was the weather?’ It will tell you what the weather was like on the day you were born! When were you born? __/__/____ Record the data below °C °C Maximum temperature: 7 . Do the flags point in the same direction or opposite direction to the wind vane? Discuss back at school. __________________________________________ 6. An anemometer measures wind speed. The current average wind speed is? ______________ km/hr. Minimum temperature: Rainfall: mm Did you know? Sydney’s hottest recorded day was 45.8 C on 18 January 2013. The hottest day ever recorded in the world was in Death Valley, USA, in 1913 at a scorching 56.7 C. ° ° Back at school • Can you find who had the hottest birthday, the coldest and the wettest. • Perhaps your teacher can help make a pie graph of wet and dry birthdays. 13 10 New: Look at the block with red lights on top of the Westpac building. It is a barometer which measures atmospheric pressure. When lit, are there a lot of lights (HIGH pressure) or just a few (LOW pressure)? ___________________________________________ Did you know? As a very loose rule, high pressure often brings stable weather and low pressure brings unsettled weather. Indigenous weather symbols and words Some Indigenous groups use symbols in art to describe the weather. The Bureau of Meteorology also uses symbols to describe the weather. Eora weather words Are the lights moving up or down? Circle your observation. • Rising pressure so it will probably be clear later • Falling pressure so it will probably cloudy later Back at school the next day. Was there a change in the weather and did the barometer “predict’ it correctly? 19 Yes / No The Gadigal people of the Eora nation are the traditional custodians of the land upon which Sydney Observatory was built in 1858. Eora Buruwa Mungi Murungal Guruwilang Bamal Barabung Guruny Walan yilaba Bidiluray English Cloud Lightning Thunder Hail Earth Dew Fog Heavy rain Fine weather 4 Australia’s first weather map 7. The relative humidity is a measure of how much water vapour is in the air. 100% humidity occurs in fog. When the humidity is low we can feel small electric shocks that build up on some carpets and clothes. This can be a problem for computers and other electronic devices. Whirling hygrometer Dry Bulb Wet Bulb This is Australia’s first European weather map. It was created by Henry Chamberlain Russell, the third government astronomer at Sydney Observatory. Can you find an image of this weather map in the exhibition? What year was this weather map made? ____ Back at School go to www.bom.gov.au and find a modern weather map for Sydney called a Mean Sea Level Pressure Map. Have the maps changed much? °C b. Wet bulb temp ________ °C a. Dry bulb temp c. Now subtract the wet temp (b) from the dry temp (a) C ° d. With the teacher’s help, use the table supplied to find the relative humidity. _____________ % 9 14 Indigenous weather Weather spelling list The Indigenous people of Australia have evolved cultures that incorporate the environment into their life including climate change, plant life, animal behaviour and movement of the stars. weather, meteorology, bureau, isobar, barometer, rain, storm, cyclone, gauge, observatory, humidity, drought, wind, climate, temperature, atmosphere, hail, front, trough, Beaufort, zephyr, hygrometer. For more than 40 000 years they have had to cope with the extremes of weather including thousands of years of winter during the last ice age, droughts, fire and flood. Back at school Each Indigenous group have their own unique story of the weather based on observation and an unrivalled connection with nature. Watch the weather report on the news tonight. Look for a weather map. Draw some of the main features on your own map below. Date: Indigenous Nations of Australia Courtesy NSW Department of Education and Training 3 20 8 . The UV index tells us how much Ultra-Violet radiation is coming from the Sun. This can tell us how quickly we can get sunburnt. The weather map We measure this using a UV index meter. smooth line, called an I _ _ _ _ _ , to make a closed loop called a CELL. If the pressure in the centre of the cell is lower than the outside it is a LOW pressure cell. If the centre of the cell has a higher pressure than the outside is it a HIGH pressure cell. Write the current UV index in the blank space on the meter. Below is a weather map of NSW. The numbers represent the atmospheric pressure. Activity - Join values of equal pressure with a The UV index is a scale used to tell people how to protect themselves from the Sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation. 0 – 2 Low. No protection required. 3 – 5 Moderate 6 – 7 High 8 – 10 Very high. Avoid the midday sun. What type of cell is this? High or Low pressure? 11+ Extreme. Stay in the shade where possible. Remember to always Slip, slop, slap, seek and slide! Remember the air in a ‘low’ is falling and the air in a ‘high’ is rising. 8 15 Weather poem Hear is a poem about weather, it is a verse from My Country by Dorothea Mackellar. What is the difference between weather and climate? I love a sunburnt country, A land of sweeping plains, Of ragged mountain ranges, Of droughts and flooding rains. I love her far horizons, I love her jewel-sea, Her beauty and her terror The wide brown land for me! The Earth is surrounded by a thin layer of gas called the atmosphere. atmosphere Weather is the local condition of the atmosphere at a given time. Climate is the long-term average of conditions that exist in the atmosphere. Can you write your own weather poem? 21 2 Clouds Atmospheric pressure Atmospheric pressure is a measure of how strongly the air is pushing down on the ground. Air that has been heated by the Sun will rise, spread out and then cool and fall back to the ground. Where the air is r _ s _ _ g it is an area of _ _ _ pressure; where the air is f _ _ _ _ _ it is an area of _ _ _ _ pressure. Clouds are made of tiny drops of water and ice that are so small they are carried by the wind. What does the sky look like now? overcast/ rainy cloudy mostly sunny sunny _ You may not have heard of air pressure before but you definitely will have felt it. Travelling in a car, a lift or a plane as they get higher you may sometimes feel your ears ‘pop’. This is because the air pressure as you go up is lower and your ears try to adjust to the change. 7 16 Why study weather at Sydney Observatory? European meteorology, or the study of weather, began in Australia on 14 September 1788 when the First Fleet’s Lieutenant Dawes set up an observatory to look for a comet and to start regular weather observations. Sydney Observatory, built in 1858, became the centre of weather studies until the Bureau of Meteorology began work in 1908. In 1922 the bureau moved to their purpose-built office nearby, as seen on the cover. Challenge You saw some examples in the Observatory today of ways to collect data about the weather. Can you design you own equipment to measure the weather? Let your imagination go wild! Reconstructed view of William Dawes’ observatory by R Bashford Web research On which ship did Dawes come to Australia? (Hint: it shares its name with the brightest star in the night sky.) 1 22 Calibration (Optional viewing of the Sun) You might have noticed that sometimes you got a different reading to your classmates. Two of the same instruments can sometimes give us two different readings. This means that instruments require an accuracy check or calibration. calibration . We can use a telescope fitted with a solar filter to look at the sun. Sometimes we can see sunspots and huge ‘flame-like’ structures called prominences and flares. Look through the telescope and carefully record what you see. If it’s too cloudy visit www.spaceweather.com to see an image of the Sun from a space telescope. Calibrate Your Thermometer My temperature reading: Date:____________ Sun Earth °C Actual temperature as measured by the Observatory’s digital thermometer: This means I need to add/subtract from my readings. °C °C Sample sketch E.g. If your thermometer reads a temperature two degrees higher than the actual temperature, you must subtract two from all of your readings in order to get the accurate result. 17 6 Sydney Observatory Sydney Observatory is open every day (except Christmas Day and Good Friday) between 10 am and 5 pm. Admission to the heritage building and grounds is free. Measuring the weather Telescope, 3-D Space Theatre and planetarium tours every day and night except Sunday nights. Please visit our website. Bookings are essential for night tours. Admission fees and Powerhouse Member discounts apply. Prepayment is required for all booked activities. Bookings (02) 9921 3485 www.sydneyobservatory.com.au Name: Measuring the weather is supported by Don’t forget to bring your book to Sydney Observatory