Disciplines
Meteorology
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Meteorology is the scientific study of the atmosphere and the processes that produce weather, using physics and chemistry to explain and forecast it. Reliable thermometers and barometers in the seventeen hundreds made systematic measurement possible, and the electrical telegraph after 1837 let widely separated observations be gathered and mapped quickly enough to matter; the United Kingdom founded the world's first national weather service, its Meteorological Office, in 1854.
Facts
Founded YearSourced to the subject's own accountDated to the founding of the UK Meteorological Office, the first national meteorological service; instrumental and telegraphic precursors reach back further, so this year marks institutionalisation, not the earliest measurement. Central QuestionSourced to the subject's own accountGiven that the atmosphere is a chaotic system in which tiny differences in starting conditions grow into large differences in outcome, how far into the future can weather ever be reliably predicted? 1 ScopeSourced to the subject's own accountMeteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere, focused on weather processes and short-range forecasting, distinct from the longer-run study of climate. 1 SignificanceSourced to the subject's own accountAristotle's treatise Meteorology, written around 340 BC, gave the field its name and its first systematic attempt to explain weather phenomena through natural causes rather than divine will, remaining the standard reference on the subject for nearly two thousand years. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
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Credited with naming the field and its first systematic treatment; quantitative modern meteorology developed much later.
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In the Other Atlases
- Also in Agriculture and Farming Atlas: Agrometeorology, is where this subject originated.
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