MADRIAGA, RAY FRANCIS S.

BSCE 4 / ASSIGNMENT
HYDROLOGY (1:30-5:30) SATURDAY
ENGR. MARLOWE LABUSNOG, CE

Rain Gauge (also known as Ombrometer

an Udometer, Pluviometer, or an Ombrometer)

instrument used
by meteorologists and hydrologists to gather
and measure the amount
of liquid precipitation over an area in a
predefined period of time.

Udometer

The standard United States National Weather

Service rain gauge, developed at the start of the
20th century, consists of a funnel emptying into
a graduated cylinder, 20 mm in radius, which
fits inside a larger container that is 200 mm in
diameter and 500 mm tall. If the rainwater
overflows the graduated inner cylinder, the
larger outer container will catch it. When
Pluviometer measurements are taken, the height of the
water in the small graduated cylinder is
measured, and the excess overflow in the large
container is carefully poured into another
graduated cylinder and measured to give the
total rainfall. A cone meter is sometimes used to
prevent leakage that can result in alteration of
the data. In locations using the metric system,
the cylinder is usually marked in mm and will
measure up to 250 millimetres (9.8 in) of rainfall.
Each horizontal line on the cylinder is 0.5
millimetres (0.02 in). In areas still using Imperial
units, each horizontal line represents 0.01 inch.

Pluviometer of intensities (1921)

The pluviometer of intensities (or Jardi's
pluviometer) is a tool that measures the average
intensity of rainfall in a certain interval of time. It
was initially designed to record the rainfall
regime in Catalonia, but eventually spread
throughout the world.
It employs the principle of feedback ... the
incoming water pushes the buoy upwards,
making the lower "adjusting conic needle" to let
pass the same amount of water that enters into

REF: https://science.howstuffworks.com
MADRIAGA, RAY FRANCIS S.
BSCE 4 / ASSIGNMENT
HYDROLOGY (1:30-5:30) SATURDAY
ENGR. MARLOWE LABUSNOG, CE
the container, this way ... the needle records on
the drum the amount of water flowing through
it at every moment—in mm of rainfall per
square meter.
It consists of a rotating drum that rotates at
constant speed, this drum drags a graduated
sheet of cardboard, which has the time at
the abscissa while the y-axis indicates
the height of rainfall in mm of rain. This height is
recorded with a pen that moves vertically,
driven by a buoy, marking on the paper
the rainfall over time. Each cardboard sheet is
usually used for one day.
While the rain falls, the water collected by the
funnel falls into the container and raises the
buoy that makes the pen arm raising in the
vertical axis marking the cardboard accordingly.
If the rainfall does not vary, the water level in
the container remains constant, and while the
drum rotates, the pen's mark it is more or less a
horizontal line, proportional to the amount of
water that has fallen. When the pen reaches the
top edge of the recording paper, it means that
the buoy is "up high in the tank" leaving the tip
of the conical needle in a way that uncovers the
regulating hole, i.e., the maximum flow that the
apparatus is able to record. If the rain suddenly
decreases, making the container (as it empties)
to quickly lower the buoy, that movement
corresponds to a steep slope line that can reach
the bottom of the recorded cardboard, if it stops
raining.
The rain gauge of intensities allowed
precipitation to be recorded over many years,
particularly in Barcelona (95 years), apart from
many other places around the world, such as
Hong Kong.
Weighing precipitation gauge
A weighing-type precipitation gauge consists of a
storage bin, which is weighed to record the
mass. Certain models measure the mass using a
pen on a rotating drum, or by using a vibrating
wire attached to a data logger.The advantages of
this type of gauge over tipping buckets are that
it does not underestimate intense rain, and it
can measure other forms of precipitation,
including rain, hail and snow. These gauges are,
however, more expensive and require more
maintenance than tipping bucket gauges.
The weighing-type recording gauge may also
contain a device to measure the number of
chemicals contained in the location's
REF: https://science.howstuffworks.com
atmosphere. This is extremely helpful for
scientists studying the effects of greenhouse
gases released into the atmosphere and their
effects on the levels of the acid rain.
Some Automated Surface Observing
System (ASOS) units use an automated weighing
gauge called the AWPAG (All Weather
Precipitation Accumulation Gauge).
Tipping bucket rain gauge
The interior of a tipping bucket rain gauge
The tipping bucket rain gauge consists of a
funnel that collects and channels the
precipitation into a small seesaw-like container.
After a pre-set amount of precipitation falls, the
lever tips, dumping the collected water and
sending an electrical signal. An old-style
recording device may consist of a pen mounted
on an arm attached to a geared wheel that
moves once with each signal sent from the
collector. In this design, as the wheel turns the
pen arm moves either up or down leaving a
trace on the graph and at the same time making
a loud "click".
The exterior of a tipping bucket rain gaugeThe
tipping bucket rain gauge is not as accurate as of
the standard rain gauge, because the rainfall
may stop before the lever has tipped. When the
next period of rain begins it may take no more
than one or two drops to tip the lever. This
would then indicate that pre-set amount has
fallen when only a fraction of that amount has
actually fallen. Tipping buckets also tend to
underestimate the amount of rainfall,
particularly in snowfall and heavy rainfall
events.[15][16] The advantage of the tipping
bucket rain gauge is that the character of the
rain (light, medium, or heavy) may be easily
obtained. Rainfall character is decided by the
total amount of rain that has fallen in a set
period (usually 1 hour) and by counting the
number of pulses clicks in a 10-minute period
the observer can decide the character of the
rain. Algorithms may be applied to the data as a
method of correcting the data for high-intensity
rainfall.
MADRIAGA, RAY FRANCIS S.
BSCE 4 / ASSIGNMENT
HYDROLOGY (1:30-5:30) SATURDAY
ENGR. MARLOWE LABUSNOG, CE

Tipping bucket rain gauge recorder.Close up of a

tipping bucket rain gauge recorder
chart.Modern tipping rain gauges consist of a
plastic collector balanced over a pivot. When it
tips, it actuates a switch (such as a reed switch)
which is then electronically recorded or
transmitted to a remote collection station.
Tipping gauges can also incorporate elements of
weighing gauges whereby a strain gauge is fixed
to the collection bucket so that the exact rainfall
can be read at any moment. Each time the
collector tips, the strain gauge (weight sensor) is
re-zeroed to null out any drift.
To measure the water equivalent of frozen
precipitation, a tipping bucket may be heated to
melt any ice and snow that is caught in its
funnel. Without a heating mechanism, the
funnel often becomes clogged during a frozen
precipitation event, and thus no precipitation
can be measured. Many Automated Surface
Observing System (ASOS) units use heated
tipping buckets to measure precipitation.
Optical rain gauge
This type of gauge has a row of collection
funnels. In an enclosed space below each is
a laser diode and a photo transistor detector.
When enough water is collected to make a
single drop, it drops from the bottom, falling
into the laser beam path. The sensor is set at
right angles to the laser so that enough light is
scattered to be detected as a sudden flash of
lights. The flashes from these photodetectors
are then read and transmitted or recorded.
Acoustic rain gauge
The acoustic disdrometer is an acoustic rain
gauge. Also referred to as a hydrophone, it is
able to sense the sound signatures for each drop
size as rain strikes a water surface within the
gauge. Since each sound signature is unique, it is
possible to invert the underwater sound field to
estimate the drop-size distribution within the
rain. Selected moments of the drop-size
distribution yield rainfall rate, rainfall
accumulation, and other

REF: https://science.howstuffworks.com