GLOSSARY / FAQS / LEXICON

Glossary / FAQs / LexiconWind measuring technology

Acoustic virtual temperature

The acoustic virtual temperature is the air temperature referred to dry air without any portion of water vapour.
It is acquired by propagation measurements of sonic pulses. After respective correction of the humidity influence the procedure exceeds the accuracy of the classic procedures of the temperature measurement in a weather and thermal radiation shield.

Arithmetic mean value

The quotient from the sum of all the individual values and the number of values within the mean value time.

Damping coefficient

The damping coefficient characterises the oscillations of the wind vane. It is an important characteristic quantity for the qualitative evaluation of the wind vane. The damping coefficient is determined from the amplitudes of two successive excursions and is calculated by means of an equation.

Damping ratio

Measure for the damping of wind vanes. It represents the ratio between the consecutive damped deflection amplitudes (for example 3^rd amplitude to 1^st amplitude) in one direction.

Delay distance

The path covered by the wind which is reached when, after a sudden change in wind speed, the speed reaches 63% of its end value.

Detection limit

The lowest value of wind speed and wind direction at which a stable value sets in.

Gliding mean value

The mean value which is updated as the mean value time at short time intervals
(for example the 10 min.-mean value is updated once a second).

Gray-code

One-increment binary code, on the changeover of one value to the next one only one single data bit modifies each to the previous and the next value respectively. The Gray-code is used for the digital determination of distances, for ex. the wind direction of a wind vane.
The code can be set up by means of any number of digits, it depends only on the required accuracy of resolution.

Orthogonal wind velocity vector

A straight line standing vertically to another straight line. By arranging two measurement distances standing vertically on each others you achieve the amount and angle of the wind velocity vector in the form of rectangular components. After measurement of the rectangular wind velocity components the amount and angle of the wind velocity can be calculated.

Scalar wind velocity

Wind velocity amount without indication of direction.

Serial-synchron. output

The serial-synchronous interface is a unidirectional two-wire-interface with Thies specifications. It allows the connection between Thies wind sensors with serial-synchronous output and respective periphery (for ex. display instruments)

Starting value

The wind speed at which a cup anemometer respectively the wind vane starts to move.

Stress

Maximum allowable wind speed at which no damage occurs on the wind measuring instruments.

Variation

The range within which wind direction has changed within the preceding 10 minutes (in accordance with ICAO).

Vectorial mean value

Method of calculation: The individual vectors, measured as wind speed and direction, are decomposed into rectangular components.
The components are averaged arithmetically, these mean values are then composed into a vectorial mean value.

Vectorial mean value with standard vectors

Only used for wind direction. A constant wind speed is assumed for the individual vectors.

Wind direction

Information on the direction from which the wind is coming.
Information appears clockwise from North to East (90°), South (180°), West (270°) and North (360°).

Wind force

”Beaufort“ (bft) classes for certain wind speed ranges.

bft	m/s	bft	m/s
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8	0 - 0.2 0.3 - 1.5 1.6 - 3.3 3.4 - 5.4 5.5 - 7.9 8.0 - 10.7 10.8 - 13.8 13.9 - 17.1 17.2 - 20.7	9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17	20.8 - 24.4 24.5 - 28.4 28.5 - 32.6 32.7 - 36.9 37.0 - 41.4 41.5 - 46.1 46.2 - 50.9 51.0 - 56.0 56.1 - 61.2

Wind run

The path covered by the wind for a certain period of time.

Wind speed

The most common units of measurement are: 1 m/s = 3.6 km/h = 1.9455 knots.

8-bit wind direction Gray-code

The wind direction (0 … 360 °) is converted into an 8-bit Gray code (Thies special) and transmitted. The resolution is 2.5 °, 144 increments per revolution.
Increment 0 = 0 ° = North and corresponds to the sector 0 … 2.5 °
Increment 143 = 357.5 ° corresponds to the sector 357.5 … 0 °.

THE WORLD OF WEATHER DATA

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