Altimeter, instrument that measures the altitude of the land surface or any object such

as an airplane. The two main types are the pressure altimeter, or aneroid barometer, which
approximates altitude above sea level by measuring atmospheric pressure, and the radio
altimeter, which measures absolute altitude (distance above land or water) based on the time
required for a radio wave signal to travel from an airplane, a weather balloon, or a spacecraft
to the ground and back.

The pressure altimeter operates on the principle that average atmospheric pressure
decreases linearly with altitude. A typical pressure altimeter is illustrated in the figure below.

The instrument is enclosed in a case that is connected to the outside of the aircraft by
an air pressure inlet at the rear of the housing. Two or more aneroid capsulesi.e., thin
corrugated metallic bellows from which air has been exhaustedare positioned near the inlet.
These capsules expand when the outside air pressure falls (as in climbing) and contract when
the outside air pressure rises (as in descending). By a mechanical arrangement of sector gears,
pinion, backlash spring, and crankshaft, the expansion or contraction of the aneroid capsules
is converted to the movement of pointers on a dial. The graduated scale dial is marked off in
metres or feet, and a series of gear-driven pointers similar to the hands of a clock may be
used to indicate the altitude in units of hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands. The
barometric scale dial records the air pressure in millibars (mb). Because atmospheric pressure
is measured relative to sea level, a pressure altimeter must be adjusted with a barosetting
knob in order to compensate for small variations in barometric pressure caused by changes
in local weather.