Argument

Meteorology

Overview

Meteorology is the scientific study of the Earth's atmosphere and short-term atmospheric phenomena (i.e., weather), with a focus on weather forecasting. It has applications in the military, aviation, energy production, transport, agriculture, construction, weather warnings, and disaster management.

Along with climatology, atmospheric physics, atmospheric chemistry, and aeronomy, meteorology forms the broader field of the atmospheric sciences. The interactions between Earth's atmosphere and its oceans (notably El Niño and La Niña) are studied in the interdisciplinary field of hydrometeorology. Other interdisciplinary areas include biometeorology, space weather, and planetary meteorology. Marine weather forecasting relates meteorology to maritime and coastal safety, based on atmospheric interactions with large bodies of water.

Meteorologists study meteorological phenomena driven by solar radiation, Earth's rotation, ocean currents, and other factors. These include everyday weather like clouds, precipitation, and wind patterns, as well as severe weather events such as tropical cyclones and severe winter storms. Such phenomena are quantified using variables like temperature, pressure, and humidity, which are then used to forecast weather at local (microscale), regional (mesoscale and synoptic scale), and global scales. Meteorologists collect data using basic instruments like thermometers, barometers, and weather vanes (for surface-level measurements), alongside advanced tools like weather satellites, balloons, reconnaissance aircraft, buoys, and radars. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) ensures international standardization of meteorological research.

The study of meteorology dates back millennia. Ancient civilizations tried to predict weather through folklore, astrology, and religious rituals. Aristotle's treatise Meteorology sums up early observations of the field, which advanced little during early medieval times but experienced a resurgence during the Renaissance, when Alhazen and René Descartes challenged Aristotelian theories and emphasized scientific methods. In the 18th century, accurate measurement tools (e.g., barometer and thermometer) were developed, and the first meteorological society was founded. In the 19th century, telegraph-based weather observation networks were formed across broad regions. In the 20th century, numerical weather prediction (NWP), coupled with advanced satellite and radar technology, introduced sophisticated forecasting models. Later, computers revolutionized forecasting by processing vast datasets in real time and automatically solving modeling equations. 21st-century meteorology is highly accurate and driven by big data and supercomputing. It is adopting innovations like machine learning, ensemble forecasting, and high-resolution global climate modeling. Climate change–induced extreme weather poses new challenges for forecasting and research, while inherent uncertainty remains because of the atmosphere's chaotic nature (see butterfly effect).

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

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4. There is another aphya derived from fish, for that which is called cobitis is derived from small and inferior gobii, which bury themselves in the earth. The membrades are produced from the phalerica. The trichides come from these, and the trichiæ from the trichides; from one kind of aphya, which inhabits the port of Athens, the encrasicoli are derived. There is another kind of aphya which originates in the mœnis…
Aristotle, Aristotle's History of Animals In Ten Books
States what Meteorology is; the author is tied to Meteorology in the knowledge graph.
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[Footnote: words in Greek] CCV. That nevertheless there is a moral certainty that all the things of this world are such as has been here shown they may be. But nevertheless, that I may not wrong the truth by supposing it less certain than it is, I will here distinguish two kinds of certitude. The first is called moral, that is, a certainty sufficient for the conduct of life, though, if we look to the absolute power…
René Descartes, Selections from the Principles of Philosophy
States what Meteorology is; the author is tied to Meteorology in the knowledge graph.
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Nevertheless, not only is it certain that these variations depend on causes, and follow their causes by laws of unerring uniformity; not only, therefore, is tidology a science, like meteorology, but it is, what hitherto at least meteorology is not, a science largely available in practice. General laws may be laid down respecting the tides, predictions may be founded on those laws, and the result will in the main…
John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive
States what Meteorology is; names Meteorology twice.
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Meteorology

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