VIRTUAL TOUR OF THE WEATHER STATION
SUNSHINE
Sunshine totals at Pitsford Hall are still determined using a Campbell-Stokes sunshine recorder. The unit is designed to record the hours of bright sunshine by producing a scorch or burn hole on specially manufactured card. The glass sphere is designed to focus the rays from the sun onto the card mounted at the back and set on a stand. The card is held in place by grooves of which there are three overlapping sets, to allow for the height of the sun during different seasons of the year.
The card is change at 0900 GMT each day and the duration of sunshine for the previous day calculated. A note is made of any sunshine recorded before 0900 so that it may be correctly added to the appropriate day.
The station also has an electronic sunshine recorder, but the main function of this is to provide sunshine data online via the automatic weather station and to obtain current sunshine reading without recourse to interfering with the Campbell-Stokes recorder. All cards are archived at the station as a hard record of each day's sunshine.
