It is a collaborative partnership of more than 30 nations from all continents, all working together to provide a seamless global array of over 3, 000 profiling floats moving up and down in the water column from the sea surface to 2, 000 meters and measuring temperature, salinity, and depth during every ascent to the sea surface.

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The system consists of sensors fitted on cables throughout the network, both overhead and underground, measuring current and conductor temperature.

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Then researchers fan out across the forest measuring the temperature and the humidity of the air (two of the factors that determine how a fire will behave), and recording the amount of woody fuel in the forest and the moisture in that fuel.

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In 2001, the Court ruled against the government in a case involving use of a ground-based thermal imager to detect an indoor marijuana growing operation by measuring the temperature of the roof and outside wall of a house.

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These add-on modules might be designed for measuring vibration, temperature or displacement in fields where precision is important, such as agriculture, aviation and the medical field.

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