Ramon Jardí i Borras (

Tivissa Tivissa () is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Ribera d'Ebre, Catalonia, Spain. It is located below the La Llena Mountains, La Llena massif. As well as the village of Tivissa itself, the municipality also includes the village of La Serra d'Almo ...

, November 13, 1881 – June 5, 1972) was a Catalan

meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmosphere of Earth, atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists ...

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

and

seismologist Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes (or generally, quakes) and the generation and propagation of elastic ...

. He participated in the foundation of the

Meteorological Service of Catalonia The Meteorological Service of Catalonia (SMC, ''Servei Meteorològic de Catalunya'' in Catalan, also known as Meteocat) is a public company ascribed to the Ministry of Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda of the Government of Catalonia (Spain ...

(1921–1939). He was member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts (1914), professor of electricity at Industrial School University (1917), professor at the

University of Barcelona The University of Barcelona (official name in ; UB), formerly also known as Central University of Barcelona (), is a public research university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was established in 1450. With 76,000 students, ...

(1930–1951) and a member of the

Institut d'Estudis Catalans The Institute for Catalan Studies ( ), also known by the acronym and initialism, acronym IEC, is an academic institution which seeks to undertake research and study into "all elements of Catalan culture". It is based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spai ...

(1926–1931).raco.cat/Miscellania CERE
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Early life

Ramon Jardí studied at the Faculty of Science, where he specialized in Physical Science. After obtaining his doctorate, he taught at the

(1930–1951).

Career

In the engineering field, he modified Bourdon's anemograph that was installed at the

Fabra Observatory The Fabra Observatory (, ; obs. code: 006) is an astronomical observatory located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain pointed towards the south at 415 metres above sea level (latitude: 41,4184° N; longitude: 2,1239° E). It was established in 1904 ...

to address design problems. He named the improved model "Bourdon-Jardí". It continues in use. Upon approval of the creation of the Meteorological Service of Catalonia by the Permanent Council of the

Commonwealth of Catalonia The Commonwealth of Catalonia (, ) was a deliberative assembly made up of the councillors of the four provinces of Catalonia. Promoted in its final stages of gestation by the Regionalist League of Catalonia, it was strongly endorsed by municip ...

in September 1919, Eduard Fontserè was appointed its director. He appointed Ramon Jardí as his assistant. While director of the Fabra Observatory, he represented the Meteorological Service of Catalonia at international meetings of the Conference of Directors of Meteorological Services.

Pluviometer of intensities

The pluviometer of intensities (or Jardi's

pluviometer A rain gauge (also known as udometer, ombrometer, pluviometer and hyetometer) is an instrument used by meteorologists and hydrologists to gather and measure the amount of liquid precipitation in a predefined area, over a set period of time. It is ...

), is a tool that measures the average intensity of rainfall over an interval of time. The device was initially designed to record rainfall in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, but eventually spread throughout the world.

History

In 1921, the president of the Commonwealth of Catalonia of that time,

Josep Puig i Cadafalch Josep Puig i Cadafalch (; 17 October 1867 in Mataró – 21 December 1956 in Barcelona) was a Spanish architect who designed many significant buildings in Barcelona, and a politician who had a significant role in the development of Catalan regio ...

, explained to Eduard Fontserè his concerns about the need for a method to measure the intensity of rainfall. A huge downpour had fallen in Barcelona not long before. Fontserè commissioned Jardí to construct a pluviometer that could record a similar rainfall. Before the end of that year, his device was already working in the Meteorological Service of Catalonia. Patented copies of this pluviometer were mass-produced by two international companies: Richard (Paris) and Casella (London). In June 1927, two pluviometers entered into operation, one in the Department of Meteorology and one in the Fabra Observatory. Thanks to the device and to the uninterrupted activity of the Observatory, Barcelona has a record of "almost-instantaneous" intensities of rainfall that is the most comprehensive in the world.

Operation

Jardi's pluviometer consists of a drum that rotates at constant

speed In kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude of the change of its position over time or the magnitude of the change of its position per unit of time; it is thus a non-negative scalar quantity. Intro ...

. The drum moves a graduated sheet of cardboard (the cardboard sheet is usually for one day) that records the time at the

abscissa In mathematics, the abscissa (; plural ''abscissae'' or ''abscissas'') and the ordinate are respectively the first and second coordinate of a point in a Cartesian coordinate system: : abscissa \equiv x-axis (horizontal) coordinate : ordinate \eq ...

while the y axis indicates the height of rainfall in mm. A pen moves vertically as the cardboard moves below it. The pen is driven by a buoy, marking the paper with the instantaneous rainfall rate over a period of time. When rain falls, it is collected by an external funnel. It passes into the cylindrical reservoir and raises the buoy... that raises the pen along the vertical axis, marking the cardboard accordingly. If the rainfall does not vary, the water level in the container remains constant, and the pen's mark is approximately a horizontal line, proportional to the amount of water that is falling. If the rain is heavy enough, it can exceed the device's capacity. At that level, the regulating hole is uncovered, discarding the excess water. If the rain decreases, the buoy drops at the same speed -as the cylindrical reservoir empties. The pluviometer recorded precipitation in Barcelona for 95 years and in places such as Hong-Kong). To measure the average intensity of rainfall in a certain interval of time, the Pluviometer of intensities uses the formula: :

\frac= \mathit\,

Intensity varies over time. The pluviometer records instantaneous rain intensity (as its name defines): :

\lim_ \frac =\mathit(\mathit)

References