Terminology

So much disambiguation to do... This is a work in progress.

Sensor

This term is ambiguous, it could mean:

1. Electronic component
   • device which measures specific phenomena, and sometimes performs data processing
   • eg: photodiode, microphone, magnetomer, etc.
2. Phenomena detection
   • after measuring phenomena, results are compared to thresholds or criteria
   • eg: optical lightning detection is based on energy spikes at 7774 Ångströms
3. Scientific instrument
   • contains one or more components and/or detectors, and generally performs additional processing
   • eg: Fulmenometer processes optical, acoustic and electromagnetic data

All provide metrics; either raw data and/or processed information. All can be singular or multiple. All are interrelated. You opened a can of worms :)

In general, when we say "Sensor", we are referring to the scientific instrument (as we've defined it above).