Breve storia della strumentazione meteorologica nella cultura occidentale

From 4th century b. C. Aristotelian meteorology conditioned for about two thousand years the scientific interpretation of atmospheric phenomena, since Aristotle had assumed, in the sciences, an indisputable authority: ipse dixit. A new scientific era begun in the 17th century, when the Galilean method affirmed the primacy of experimental measures on apodictic deductions, but it is with E. Torricelli that, with the experimental discovery of atmospheric pres-sure (1644), the basis of modern meteorology were set. Until the second half of the 18th century, the meteorological instruments al-lowed only direct readings. Soon they went from indicator instruments to rec-ord instruments. These latter instruments permitted to detect uninterruptedly the temporal trend of the main atmospheric quantities. This allowed studies according to the modern meteorology and the beginning of climatology. Since the 19th century, the study of meteorological instruments had an ac-celeration, thanks to the possibility to realize the electrical recording of the measured data. At the end of that century, the various Meteorological Ob-servatories began to feel the need to use standardized detecting devices and standardized methodologies: for this purpose in 1879 the International Mete-orological Organization, IMO, was founded. In 1951 UN replaced the IMO with the WMO, World Meteorological Or-ganization. WMO purposes were and are to promote a worldwide system of meteorological observations, to encourage the exchange of standard infor-mation, to support design and to carry out new instruments for measuring and monitoring meteorological parameters. In the 70s of 20th century, there was a further drastic change in the structure of the instruments, which by electrome-chanical devices, with analogic recording of data, became electronic devices, with digital recording of data. Today, thanks to the "electronic revolution", in addition to the instruments for measuring the traditional meteorological quantities, for the new human-environment relationship, there are instruments for measuring and monitoring the atmosphere, the soil and the waters, in relation to human activities.