Various model of Recording gauge

a. Tipping bucket gauge:

• The tipping bucket rain gauge consists of a large copper cylinder set into the ground.
• At the top of the cylinder is a funnel that collects and channels the precipitation into a small bucket.
• After an amount of precipitation equal to 0.2 mm falls into one of the two buckets, the lever tips and empties its water into a storage tank and at the same time another bucket is brought under the funnel.
• The tipping of the lever (bucket) actuates an electrical signal which is sent to the recorder where the pen arm moves either up or down leaving a trace on the graph or record sheet that is fixed on the clock driven drum.
• From this record sheet, total amount of rainfall for a given period and rainfall intensity can be determined.

b. Weighing type gauge:

• In weighing-type precipitation gauge, rain water received in the received is channeled via funnel into a storage bin/catch bucket.
• The catch buck is supported on a weighing platform of a spring or lever balance.
• The increasing in weight of the bucket due to addition of the precipitation is transmitted through a system of links and levers to a pen which makes traces of accumulated amount of rainfall on a suitably graduated chart wrapped around a clock driven drum.
• The mechanisms is arranged to reverse the travel of pen after a certain amount of rainfall (say 150mm), so that the gauge may operate unattended for a week at a time except in the regions of intense rainfall where totals may exceed the capacity of the gauge (usually 300 mm).
• The slope of the curve gives the intensity of rainfall.

c. Floating type gauge:

• Rainwater received is channeled through funnel into a chamber which consists of a floating body.
• As the level of the rainwater collected in the float chamber rises, the float moves up which actuates pen connected to it through a connecting rod.
• The pen makes a trace of cumulative rainfall on a suitably graduated chart wrapped around a clock driven revolving drum.
• This in the gauge also, the rainfall record is in the form mass curve of rainfall in which accumulated rainfall is plotted against time.