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A weather map displays various meteorological features across a particular area at a particular point in time and has various symbols which all have specific meanings. Such maps have been in use since the mid-19th century and are used for research and weather forecasting purposes. Maps using isotherms show temperature gradients,〔 which can help locate weather fronts. Isotach maps, analyzing lines of equal wind speed, on a constant pressure surface of 300 mb or 250 mb show where the jet stream is located. Use of constant pressure charts at the 700 and 500 hPa level can indicate tropical cyclone motion. Two-dimensional streamlines based on wind speeds at various levels show areas of convergence and divergence in the wind field, which are helpful in determining the location of features within the wind pattern. A popular type of surface weather map is the surface weather analysis, which plots isobars to depict areas of high pressure and low pressure. Special weather maps in aviation show areas of icing and turbulence for the other. ==History== The use of weather charts in a modern sense began in the middle portion of the 19th century in order to devise a theory on storm systems. During the Crimean War a storm devastated the French fleet at Balaklava, and the French scientist Urbain Le Verrier was able to show that if a chronological map of the storm had been issued, the path it would take could have been predicted and avoided by the fleet. In England, the scientist Francis Galton heard of this work, as well as the pioneering weather forecasts of Robert Fitzroy. After gathering information from weather stations across the country for the month of October 1861, he plotted the data on a map using his own system of symbols, thereby creating the ) to inscribe the map onto printing blocks. ''The Times'' began printing weather maps using these methods with data from the Meteorological Office. The introduction of country-wide weather maps required the existence of national telegraph networks so that data from across the country could be gathered in real time and remain relevant for subsequent analysis. The first such use of the telegraph for gathering data on the weather was the ''Manchester Examiner'' newspaper in 1847:〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=THE COMPANIES AND THE WEATHER )〕 :...led us to inquire if the electric telegraph was yet extended far enough from Manchester to obtain information from the eastern counties...inquiries were made at the following places; and answers were returned, which we append... It was also important for time to be standardized across time zones so that the information on the map should accurately represent the weather at a given time. A standardized time system was first used to coordinate the British railway network in 1847, with the inauguration of Greenwich Mean Time. In the USA, The Smithsonian Institution developed its network of observers over much of the central and eastern United States between the 1840s and 1860s once Joseph Henry took the helm. The U.S. Army Signal Corps inherited this network between 1870 and 1874 by an act of Congress, and expanded it to the west coast soon afterwards. At first, not all the data on the map was used due to a lack of time standardization. The United States fully adopted time zones in 1905, when Detroit finally established standard time. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「weather map」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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