Meteorological Specialties and Applications

Below is a checklist of Meteorological specialties and applications on postal items (stamps, souvenir sheets, aerogrammes, postal cards, etc.). Catalog numbers, years of issue, and notes on the items featured are given when available. If readers know of additional information or images, please contact the authors using the e-mail addresses at the bottom of this page.

Below is a list of Meteorological specialties and applications on postal items (stamps, souvenir sheets, aerogrammes, postal cards, etc.).

¹The World Telecommunications Day (WTD) commemorates the founding of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in 1865. It has been celebrated each year on 17 May since 1969. In 1975, the 7th WTD theme was "Meteorology and Telecommunications".
²The 7th World Telecommunications Day (WTD) and the 15th World Meteorological Day (WMD), both celebrated in 1975, had a common theme "Meteorology and Telecommunications". Four WMD items from 1975 are known. In all four of them, the theme is implicit rather than explicit, whereas, as noted in the table above, a few of the 7th WTD items explicitly state this theme.
³Air density is a meteorological variable that is a function of atmospheric temperature, pressure and humidity. It can be important in aviation, since aircraft performance varies with density. For example, on a hot summer day at Denver airport, the low air density means that aircraft need a significantly longer distance for takeoff than at an airport near sea level in winter.
⁴A pressure altimeter is the basic instrument for measuring altitude in any aircraft. It is a barometer, and so its pressure readings are related to the altitude of the aircraft (the lower the pressure, the higher the altitude). The basic transformation assumes that a standard atmosphere exists below the aircraft. The actual altitude will vary depending on the actual terrain height and surface pressure and profile of atmospheric density³. Those local conditions are accounted for by a correction known as the "altimeter setting", which the pilot obtains by radio from nearby airports.
⁵Weather information coded for transmission:

• 151800Z: the 15th of the month at 1800 UTC
• 18019KT: wind from 180 degrees at 19 knots
• CAVOK: Ceiling (or Clouds) and Visibility OK, defined as follows: visibility at least 10 km and no cloud ceiling below 5000 feet or minimum sector altitude (whichever is higher) and no cumulonimbus or towering cumulus in the vicinity and no current or forecast significant weather such as precipitation
• 00/M02: Temperature 0° C and dew point -2° C (rounded to the nearest whole degree)
• Q0981=: Altimeter setting 981 hPa, with "Q" as the first character of the section to identify it (the use of "A" rather than "Q" is an updated standard); the equals sign may represent the end of a message.

Below is a list of Meteorological specialties and applications on satellite launch covers.

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