See aslo Extracting from the MetLink 2002 database
Data from the Metlink weather database can be copied and pasted into spreadsheet packages such as Excel or Claris Works. This will allow students ot produce:
CSV files are also available on the Metlink Daily Report page
Method for converting csv files into spreadsheets
Open the Metlink database and search as required. Examples:
Now
Then for a Claris Works or Appleworks Spreadsheet:
Hold down the mouse button and drag across the results to
copy and then paste into a Claris or Word
Spreadsheet.
The results will appear in columns
or for an Excel Spreadsheet:
Launch Excel
The spreadsheet is now ready to sort eg by date or to plot graphs.
There are many excellent web sites which publish jpeg images and movies. See Dundee, Reading & Nottingham Unversity websites.
Particularly interesting images or movies can be inserted into Claris or Word worksheets alongside questions.The file should be saved as Stationery to allow a whole networked class to access it simultaneously. Movies can be inserted using File-Insert and students can then play the animation and answer related questions. If the network is very slow it may be better to copy the movies onto the local hard disc.
It is possible to build up a movie library of hurricanes, typhoons, depressions, diurnal heating and cooling, wind & atmospheric circulations, cloud types, anticyclones with associated questions.
Several gifs of the same meteosat view eg D2 or DTOT can be converted into an animated gif which plays like a movie and can be inserted into a worksheet.
Student's weather data can be displayed on a noticeboard outside the Geography classroom along with print-outs of Metlink maps and other information sheets.
Results could also entered onto an Excel spreadsheet (saved as Stationery for multiple users) and uploaded to the campus-wide computer network. The spreadsheet could be programmed to automatically display graphs eg daily rainfall & pressure, maximum and minimum temperature.
Files can be labelled eg 050200.xls and stored in a folder called MetData. This folder could also be used to store and display data from the other schools.
Weather Reporter and other automatic weather stations record weather data hourly and daily. Files can be saved in csv format and uploaded into Excel or Claris spreadsheets for further analysis:graphs, averages and ranges.
Particularly interesting days eg gales or high intensity rainfall events can be archived. The assocated Meteosat image for the same day could be archived for comparison.
Many email systems allow the setting up of internal conference folders eg Metlink. Interesting emails can be posted to the Metlink folder to allow access to all users.
Bubbles are great to help investigate wind. Use them to demonstrate:
a) wind flow from areas of high to low pressure eg into a warm room from a colder corridor (Asian monsoon).
b) convection over warmer surfaces eg concrete at mid-day in summer (Amazon) and vortices.
c) increased velocities where wind flow is channelled eg through narrow gaps between buildings (Mistral).
d) decreased wind velocities in the lee of obstacles eg behind walls (Snowdrifts)
There are many websites to obtain updated satellite images, temperature and pressure charts and detailed live weather information for particular places.
Possible exercises:
1. Draw a map of the pattern of atmospheric pressure over GB (plot isobars every 4mb eg 1000, 1004); mark in areas of high/low pressure and any weather fronts.
2. Describe the weather at selected contrating world locations.
3. Describe and suggest a brief explanation for the general weather situation. Comment on pressure, wind circulations, cloud, temperatures, weather experienced.
4. Study satellite images and other sources for a place of yoiur choice. Write a weather forecast for the next 24 hours (with reasons).
5. Comment on anything that interested or surprised you eg land and sea temperatures, inland compared to coastal conditions.
Kit required: thermometer, anemometer, simple map of school with main buildings, fields. Your figures will be plotted on this map.
Collecting the results: split the school into areas to be studied by each group. Groups visit their selected points and record temperature and wind speed in kph onto their maps. It may be useful to use two different colours or put circles around the temperature readings to avoid any confusion. Recordings can be made during one lesson or for a longer period of time.
Plotting the results: plot all of the results onto one "master" map and either photocopy or share the results for each student. The data can then be plotted in a number of ways: a simple thermometer can be drawn to show temperature at each location (shade in a vertical red band to indicate the temperature). Wind speed can be plotted as an arrow (longer or thicker lines could show stronger winds) and possibly wind direction.
A more complicated idea could be to plot isotherms, using a suitable isotherm interval (perhaps every 2 degrees?). They should be gentle curves and must never cross other isotherms.
A school map could be scanned into a computer system and then results plotted using a drawing package.
Explaining your results: comment on any patterns or trends. Are temperatures higher near to buildings or lower on the shaded side of buildings or under trees? Did temperatures change during the day? Were wind speeds greater in open spaces or in narrow spaces between buildings?
Worksheets can be wordprocessed eg using Claris Works and then saved as stationery files. Students then open each file and work directly at the computer and only print out the finished sheet having completed the exercise. Add a box for the student's name and class.
Worksheets can include boxes, extended text entries and spreadsheets which may link directly to graphs and maps. Claris allows all these possibilities on the same page of a worksheet. Live URL's of useful websites can also be inserted.
Students work can be emailed or dropped into a network folder.
Don't underestimate the value of the classroom itself as a teaching aid for meteorology. Temperature differences, air flows and circulations, radiation, convection and conduction can all be demonstrated. There is even scope for saturation and condensation, given favourable conditions, cold windows and sufficient puff!
Kit: thermometers, ideally several digital thermometers, placed at strategic locations around the classroom - next to windows and doors, above radiators, at floor and ceiling level.
Method: get pupils to observe and record temperatures at the various locations.
Presentation and analysis: plot the various readings on a plan and/or profile of the classroom. Plot isotherms and identify any patterns. Is there any evidence of warm air rising eg above radiators? What does this suggest about relative densities of warm and cold air?
Open the door of the classroom - does air flow into the classroom? If so, discuss the concept of variations in temperature and hence pressure differences resulting in a flow of air from cold outdoor (higher pressure) into the warmer classroom (lower pressure). Are similar circulations occurring within the class? How do such ideas relate to larger scale and global circulations eg tropical air rising, expanding and cooling as it moves polewards and the resulting wind flow in towards the equatorial low pressure belt?
These are just a few of many ideas that can be developed from a very simple classroom exercise.
Students can study the urban heat island of a local town or city. The best time is late evening during clear, cold anticylconic conditions in winter. Walk or drive around the city with a thermometer mounted outside but protected from windflow inside a shield. Readings are plotted onto a base map. A number of transects could be taken in and out of the city centre.
The results could then be plotted onto a base map and isotherms drawn and layer-shaded to show the temperature variations. This could be done on a computer using a drawing package. Isotherm intervals are usually 0.5 or 1 degC. Regression graphs could also be plotted - distance from city centre correlated against temperature.
