The Principle of The Altimeter and Sources of Error: Z (RT/GM) .Log

Altimeters have been used by mountaineers for many years, but the recent development of electronic
wristwatch type instruments has made the altimeter easier to use and more popular with walkers and
climbers. The inclusion of Knight's Peak in Munro's tables was justified on height measurements made
with an altimeter and recently altimeter measurements have led to the suggestion that Leathad an
Taobhain, a Corbett in Glen Feshie (ref. 1), may be over 3000 feet. These claims have also helped to
bring these instruments to the attention of hillgoers. However, just how accurately do altimeters
measure height? The makers of one of the popular models claims 'On a typical day, minor atmospheric
pressure changes may cause the displayed altitude to vary from the actual altitude by 20 metres. With
the arrival or departure of a weather front, displayed altitude can change 20 to 50 metres, and a
storm can cause a change of more than 50 metres'. That the authors have experienced errors of over
50m on the summits of hills on days when atmospheric pressure changes were equivalent to changes
in height reading of only 10 to 20m prompted this study, in which the accuracy of the instrument was
tested. This article will show that both barometric drift and temperature may cause large errors to
altimeter measurements and corrections must be made for these.
The principle of the altimeter and sources of error

The altimeter works on the principle that the pressure within a column of air varies in a known way
with height. The mathematical relationship that relates them is:
z = (RT/gM).loge(po/p)
where z is the height difference between the starting height and the measurement height, R is the gas
constant, T is temperature of the air measured in Kelvin, g is the acceleration due to gravity, Mis the
molar mass of the gas (in this case air), po is the atmospheric pressure at the starting height and p is
the atmospheric pressure at the measurement height.
The derivation of this relationship is given in Appendix 1.
Electronic altimeters have this relationship programmed into the chip while for hand-held instruments
the graduated height scale is calculated from it. So what is this equation saying? Imagine yourself
standing at the foot of a mountain at sea level. Above you is a column of air several miles thick
pressing down on you. That is atmospheric pressure. As you climb to the top of the mountain the
column above you is now shorter, but also the air around you is thinner, or less dense. Consequently,
at the top of the mountain, the total amount of air pressing down on you, the pressure, is less than at
the bottom of the mountain. The equation is merely expressing this change in a quantifiable way.
The problems arise because the detector responds only to changes in pressure. To convert this change
to height, the other terms in the equation are assumed constant. Unfortunately for the manufacturers
of altimeters and for those of us using them, these terms are not constant and so may affect height
measurements. We have made a statistical assessment of the errors achievable after making
appropriate corrections to the height reading and tested the theory on the hill. Note that what follows
does not deal with sources of error associated with the construction of the instrument and which are
therefore specific to that instrument or design. Instead it looks at the assumptions made in the
application of the equation and therefore these errors are general and applicable to all instruments.
Sources of error derived from assumptions in the equation
Acceleration due to gravity, g
Firstly, it is assumed that the acceleration due to gravity, g, is constant with latitude and with height.
In fact g changes with both but only by very little. Between the equator and the poles of the
earth g varies by only 1% and, if it is assumed that instrument manufacturers have used the value at
a latitude of 45 degrees, the error would only be 0.1% if the instrument were to be used at a latitude
of 52 degrees. The correction for height is even less, 0.03%. Thus, for most purposes errors
associated with changes in g can be ignored.
The composition of air

Secondly, it is assumed that the composition of the air is constant and therefore that its apparent
molecular weight is constant. However, the composition of air varies, the major variant being water
vapour. If it is assumed that the altimeter has been calibrated for moist air at about 50% relative
humidity then the correction to the altimeter reading for compositional changes is less than 0.3%
provided the average air temperature between the starting point and mountain summit is not greater
than 13C (see Appendix 2). This would give a maximum error of 4m for an ascent of Ben Nevis from
Fort William. At temperatures greater than 13C the air is capable of absorbing much larger quantities
of water vapour and the resulting correction may become significant. Fortunately, this is rarely the
case in the UK.
Temperature
It is not generally recognised that the height measurement will be in error if the air temperature
differs from the value used for the factory calibration of the instrument, although many users have
noticed that their altimeter tends to read high in cold weather. Suppose the temperature used for the
calibration was 10C or 283K. For every degree that the air temperature differs from this value the
height reading will change by 1/283 or 3.5m per 1000m of ascent. This does not appear to be very
much, but if the air temperature is at freezing point or say 20C (293K) then the effect will be to
change the height reading by 35m per 1000m of ascent. Thus someone climbing Sgorr Dhearg on
Beinn a'Bheithir, setting the altimeter at Ballachulish, would measure its height as 1069 or 989m
respectively rather than 1024m, a very significant error. Note that this has nothing to do with the
workings of the instrument itself, which the manufacturer may well correctly state to be temperature
compensated. This means that the instrument will give the same reading at whatever temperature it
happens to be, not that it can compensate for the effect described above.
The temperature effect can be understood as follows. Imagine the atmosphere to be very cold, well
below the temperature for which the altimeter has been calibrated. The molecules of the air have lost
energy and therefore gravity is able pull them closer to the earth. Under these conditions the density
and pressure of the air fall more rapidly with height. Now imagine the atmosphere to be warmed to a
very high temperature, well above that for which the altimeter has been calibrated. Now the molecules
have gained energy and can counter the force of gravity and the change in density and pressure with
height is less. If the altimeter is used under the two conditions it will experience for the same true
height change a greater pressure change under the cold conditions than it will under the hot
conditions. Now, because it converts pressure change into height change, the altimeter will register a
greater height under the cold conditions than it will under the hot conditions even though the actual
height ascended is the same.
If it were only this simple then it would be a trivial matter to measure the temperature prior to or
during a climb and then use the equation to correct for the difference between the calibrated
temperature and the actual temperature at the time of the walk. However, as walkers know well,
temperature also varies with height. This change, or lapse rate, may be as much as 10C per 1000m
of ascent for dry air, but much less in wet or humid conditions where water vapour is condensing in
the atmosphere (see Appendix 3). The usually quoted figure is 6.5C per 1000m of ascent. It is
accepted practice that the average temperature between the starting height and the finishing height
may be used in calculating the correction for the effect of temperature. Since the walker cannot be in
two places at once, the temperature at the mountain summit is measured and the temperature at the
starting point is calculated on the 6.5C/1000m assumption. Note that it takes most mortals an hour
or two to ascend a hill and in this time the starting temperature may vary considerably, so it is not
usually acceptable to measure it before you start out on a walk. The error associated with the
assumption that the lapse rate is 6.5C per 1000m is explored in Appendix 4. It cannot be stressed
too much that altimeter measurements must be corrected for temperature in order to be meaningful,
but even then, uncertainty in the determination of the average temperature still leads to a significant
source of error.
Barometric drift
While the walker is in the hills, sea level barometric pressure may be rising or falling. During calm
stable weather, this drift may only be the equivalent of 10-20m in one day, but on occasions it may be
many tens of metres over a period of a few hours.

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Altimeters have been used by mountaineers for many years, but the recent development of electronic

The principle of the altimeter and sources of error

The derivation of this relationship is given in Appendix 1.

Sources of error derived from assumptions in the equation

Acceleration due to gravity, g

The composition of air

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