Predicting Weather By The Moon - Xavier University Libraries

Predicting Weather By The Moon - Xavier University Libraries Predicting Weather By The Moon - Xavier University Libraries

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Weather By The Moon ture would have dropped slightly as the Moon was bringing the atmosphere back. The increased height would have cancelled out the temperature drop and the barometer would have stayed steady. Which is exactly as reported. When Pascal returned to ground, the Rev Father Chastin, his sea-level observer, reported that the quicksilver level had remained constant despite weather being very unsettled, then clear and still, then rainy, foggy and finally windy. If the New Moon is rising, the barometer may stay steady if it gets warmer and drop if temperatures stay the same. If the New Moon is setting, the barometer may stay steady if it gets colder and rise if temperatures stay the same. This also explains heat waves. When the Moon is not in the sky, the atmosphere is somewhat depleted and if there is a high pressure system operating, there is less atmosphere to keep the Sun’s heat from building up the ground temperature. Proving the air changes height is tricky because no instruments have been built yet to determine it. As air is invisible, the eye would not pick up an incoming airtide as it can an incoming seatide. Expecting a barometer to measure atmospheric height is about as successful as expecting a thermometer in boiling water to read differently in boiling soup. A weather balloon(which houses a barometer) if allowed to rise and fall with the atmosphere, will be buoyant like a ship or cork in the sea, and stop at its buoyancy point. It gives no information out about its true height, but tells instead only of the surrounding temperature. 146

Barometer Pascal also missed a previous opportunity by only two days. Had he gone up the mountain 4 days beforehand, when he had originally planned to, and taken note of the day and night differences in pressure at that height (which would have entailed staying up on the mountain); then compared them to those taken at sea-level over the same period he might have noted some pressure discrepancy changes over the course of a day that could be expressed as a function of height. The atmosphere can alter in height by several miles twice a day like the sea tide. Yet the barometer may not change, because it only measures, at sealevel, the weight of a column of air a square inch in ground area. The barometer does not and cannot measure the height of the atmosphere, only the weight. Such an experiment has yet to be done. I believe it has been. Harry Alcock, an umbrella maker from the Waikato, told me how he once fitted a filtered photographic exposure meter to a telescope aimed at the Sun. The filter was a lens from a discarded pair of sunglasses. The meter was graduated for a reading range of from 14.0 – 14.7. The telescope had an elevation angle calibration fitted, and readings were taken throughout the day so Sun angles could be catered for. Brightness values were recorded on every cloud-free day. Later, the experiment was repeated using a Cushing solar energy meter, yielding the same results. Why brightness? Because the less compacted the atmosphere, the duller will be the Sun, there being more interference to the passage of the Sun’s rays through the atmospheric layers. 147

<strong>Weather</strong> <strong>By</strong> <strong>The</strong> <strong>Moon</strong><br />

ture would have dropped slightly as the <strong>Moon</strong> was bringing<br />

the atmosphere back. <strong>The</strong> increased height would have cancelled<br />

out the temperature drop and the barometer would<br />

have stayed steady. Which is exactly as reported. When Pascal<br />

returned to ground, the Rev Father Chastin, his sea-level<br />

observer, reported that the quicksilver level had remained<br />

constant despite weather being very unsettled, then clear<br />

and still, then rainy, foggy and finally windy.<br />

If the New <strong>Moon</strong> is rising, the barometer may stay<br />

steady if it gets warmer and drop if temperatures stay the<br />

same. If the New <strong>Moon</strong> is setting, the barometer may stay<br />

steady if it gets colder and rise if temperatures stay the<br />

same. This also explains heat waves. When the <strong>Moon</strong> is<br />

not in the sky, the atmosphere is somewhat depleted and if<br />

there is a high pressure system operating, there is less atmosphere<br />

to keep the Sun’s heat from building up the ground<br />

temperature.<br />

Proving the air changes height is tricky because no<br />

instruments have been built yet to determine it. As air is<br />

invisible, the eye would not pick up an incoming airtide as<br />

it can an incoming seatide. Expecting a barometer to measure<br />

atmospheric height is about as successful as expecting<br />

a thermometer in boiling water to read differently in boiling<br />

soup. A weather balloon(which houses a barometer) if<br />

allowed to rise and fall with the atmosphere, will be buoyant<br />

like a ship or cork in the sea, and stop at its buoyancy<br />

point. It gives no information out about its true height, but<br />

tells instead only of the surrounding temperature.<br />

146

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