Wiktionary
n. 1 (context physics English) A device that measures fluctuations in the Earth’s atmosphere. 2 (context physics English) A scintillation counter.
Wikipedia
A scintillometer is a scientific device used to measure small fluctuations of the refractive index of air caused by variations in temperature, humidity, and pressure. It consists of an optical or radio wave transmitter and a receiver at opposite ends of an atmospheric propagation path. The receiver detects and evaluates the intensity fluctuations of the transmitted signal, called scintillation.
The magnitude of the refractive index fluctuations is usually measured in terms of C, the structure constant of refractive index fluctuations, which is the spectral amplitude of refractive index fluctuations in the inertial subrange of turbulence. Some types of scintillometers, such as displaced-beam scintillometers, can also measure the inner scale of refractive index fluctuations, which is the smallest size of eddies in the inertial subrange.
Scintillometers also allow measurements of the transfer of heat between the Earth's surface and the air above, called the sensible heat flux. Inner-scale scintillometers can also measure the dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic energy and the momentum flux.
Usage examples of "scintillometer".
His flight pattern called for him to proceed to the seventieth degree of latitude and to fly along it until Lis scintillometer recorded .
He sat behind me and watched the magnetometer recorder and scintillometer, and got them repaired when they blew up.
Deston knew it was uranium 235, even though a scintillometer could not detect any radiation from it.
Deston knew it was uranium 235, , even though a scintillometer could not detect any radiation from it.
And, some way or other, their scintillometers happened to get swapped temporarily for a pair of slightly finagled ones we had on board.
Sure, they'll be there to take your claim registrations, hand out the official map, run a scintillometer over you to make sure you aren't packing a fission weapon in your hip pocket.