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Measuring Wind

Students can analyze data from existing weather stations or from their own equipment. Low-cost anemometers are available for students who want to study wind on school property or elsewhere. Logging systems can keep track of time-series data and/or statistics about the wind speed and direction.

Using low-cost anemometers, students can study:

*A vertical profile of wind speed.

*Histograms of wind speed.

*Wind roses, which combine statistics about speed and direction into a visual tell-tale. EnergyTeachers.org provides a free online generator of wind roses, able to process millions of points of data in seconds. With modern databases, we no longer need to limit observations to once an hour, but can store data once every 10 seconds for an entire year easily.

*Micro-controller systems, which can store observations in situ, allowing meteorology equipment to be placed anywhere. Students can use and even code and wire their own, inexpensive micro-controller systems.

Contact EnergyTeachers.org for information on obtaining wind sensors or data, having EnergyTeachers.org host your data, or using our Wind Rose and Histogram tools with your data.

Related Links

Related Topics in our Links section

Related Documents

MA Wind resource map 50m
WindResourceMA2004_50m.pdf
Low-res map of Massachusetts wind resources.

Related Static Documents

(old system)
On Site Renewable Energy Data Workshop Notes
Outline of resources for educators and students interested in investigating siting renewable energy locally.
File: OnSiteREData.pdf
Data in the Classroom Workshop Guide

File: DatainClassroomWkshp.pdf
Hourly wind energy in Syracuse, NY
Taking all hourly wind averages during 2008 from National Weather Service KSYR station at Hancock International Airport, 10m above ground, we group them by hour and add the cubes of the speeds to get the cumulative energy available in the wind. A table and a graph show that the wind has the most energy during the early evening and the least during the late morning.
File: KSYRWindEnergy2008.pdf

Related Bibliography Items

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