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XXXI.—The Meteorology of Ben Nevis in Clear and in Foggy Weather

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2012

Extract

The publication by the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1890 of the hourly observations made at the observatory on the summit of Ben Nevis along with corresponding observations at five different hours at Fort-William at the sea level was an important contribution to meteorological science. As I held at the time the Lectureship in Geography at the University of Cambridge it furnished a welcome supply of facts for the illustration of important points in physical geography. What struck me most at the time in the study of this work was the unique character of the observatory of Ben Nevis itself, without reference to its companion at the sea level, as a first-class observatory in a locality where the atmosphere is for the greater part of the year completely saturated with moisture. Being also situated on a true peak, and that the highest point in the British Islands, the observations may fairly be taken to represent the meteorology of the clouds, or at least of such clouds as are in contact with mountain slopes, and in any case they must afford rich material for the study of the physics of the atmosphere.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1900

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References

page 781 note * My views on this subject are more fully explained in a letter which appeared in Nature (1899), vol. lx. p. 364.

page 793 note * Thus, if H be the barometric pressure, and h the observed vapour tension, then the percentage by volume of aqueous vapour in the air is given by the equation V = 100 h\H.

page 795 note * The Meteorology of the Bombay Presidency. By Charles Chambers, F.R.S., Official Publication of the India Office, p. 148.

page 797 note * On the proportional Heat of the Sun in all Latitudes, with the method of collecting the same. By Halley, E., Phil Trans., 1693, vol. xvii. p. 878CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Abridgment iii., p. 576.

page 797 note † Lambert's, Johann HeinrichPyrometrie oder vom Maasse des Feuers und der Wärme, Berlin, 1779, p. 339 and fig. 35Google Scholar.