Upper Wing Calculations - Geostrophic Winds - ️️- Balance between PGF and
Coriolis:
- Geostrophic winds are when pressure gradient force pulls from high pressure to low
pressure
- coriolis force pulls moving objects to the right in NH and left in SH
- strength of Coriolis force is proporti...
EESA09 - Wind Lecture #8 - Measuring
Winds
Upper Wing Calculations - Geostrophic Winds - ✔️✔️- Balance between PGF and
Coriolis:
- Geostrophic winds are when pressure gradient force pulls from high pressure to low
pressure
- coriolis force pulls moving objects to the right in NH and left in SH
- strength of Coriolis force is proportional to the speed of the object
- friction is negligible in upper level winds
- knowledge of pressure distribution (gradients) enable calculations of winds from
geostrophic balance
- pressure distribution can be obtained from radiosonde data
Upper Level Winds: Radiosonde Drift (Weather Balloon) - ✔️✔️Radiosonde: an
instrument carried by balloon or other means to various levels of the atmosphere and
transmitting measurements by radio.
- measures temp, pressure, humidity, wind
- usually pop around 30 km (halfway through Stratosphere)
- 34 in Canada, 1500 world wide
Types of Anemometers; LASER RADAR ANEMOMETER - ✔️✔️- same principle as
Doppler Radar (Shift in frequency i.e. train whistle at railway crossings, sirens on
emergency vehicles)
- laser beams are back-scattered by moving air molecules
- Doppler shifted frequency of the back-scatter indicates wind speed
How do you measure Wind direction? - ✔️✔️wind vane/weather vane
How to measure Wind Speed? - ✔️✔️Anemometer
Types of Anemometers; DEFLECTION ANEMOMETER - ✔️✔️- 1st one
- 1450 Leon Battista in Italy
- Horizontal plate pushed by wind and connected to a spring
- compression of the spring proportional to wind speed
** Not good for light winds
Types of Anemometers; PRESSURE ANEMOMETER - ✔️✔️- James lind 1774
- tube anemometer
- U tube - wind blows into a tube & pushes liquid in the tube
- (Dines anemometer 1892)
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