A time constant is the amount of time it takes for a meteorological sensor to respond to a rapid change in a measurand until it is measuring values within the accuracy tolerance usually expected of the sensor.
This most often applies to measurements of temperature, dewpoint temperature, humidity and air pressure. Radiosondes are especially affected due to their rapid increase in altitude.
Famous quotes containing the words time and/or constant:
“My time has been passed viciously and agreeably; at thirty-one so few years months days hours or minutes remain that “Carpe Diem” is not enough. I have been obliged to crop even the seconds—for who can trust to tomorrow?”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“Love can no more continue without a constant motion than fire can; and when once you take hope and fear away, you take from it its very life and being.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)