Anemometer

History of Anemometers:
– Invented in the 15th century by Alberti.
– Robert Hooke and others contributed to its development over the centuries.
– Thomas Romney Robinson improved the design in 1846 with four hemispherical cups.
– John Patterson developed a three-cup anemometer in 1926.
– Andreas Pflitsch introduced the sonic anemometer in 1994.

Types of Velocity Anemometers:
– Cup anemometers (four-cup and three-cup designs) for wind speed.
– Vane anemometers for wind speed and direction.
– Hot-wire anemometers for airspeed using heated wire.
– Laser Doppler anemometers for wind speed based on Doppler shifts.
– Different anemometer types have varied applications and accuracy levels.

Cup Anemometers:
– Consist of cups on a vertical shaft that spin with wind speed.
– Three-cup anemometers have a nearly linear response and low error rates.
– Modifications like wind direction measurement tags have been added.
– Widely used in wind resource assessment studies.

Vane Anemometers:
– Use windmill or propeller design for wind speed and direction measurements.
– Require the rotation axis to be parallel to the wind direction.
– Suitable for applications with consistent airflow direction.
– Hand-held and digital versions are commonly used.

Advanced Anemometer Technologies:
– Ultrasonic anemometers developed in the 1950s for measuring wind velocity.
– Acoustic resonance anemometers patented in 1999 for accurate wind speed and direction measurements.
– Pressure anemometers divided into plate and tube classes for wind speed measurement.
– Ping-pong ball anemometers for basic use and educational purposes.
– Effects of density and icing on anemometer measurements.

Anemometer (Wikipedia)

In meteorology, an anemometer (from Ancient Greek άνεμος (ánemos) 'wind', and μέτρον (métron) 'measure') is a device that measures wind speed and direction. It is a common instrument used in weather stations. The earliest known description of an anemometer was by Italian architect and author Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472) in 1450.