The measurement of gustiness in the first few thousand feet of the atmosphere

Abstract

Abstract A description is given of instruments which have been designed and used to measure gustiness, in the form of inclination and total speed of the wind, from a position on the cable of a captive balloon. A lightweight wind vane with automatic compensation for tethering cable angle, and a sensitive vane airmeter are used as sensing heads. The data, with reference signals, are relayed by electric cable to ground level and recorded on multi‐channel recorders. Both instruments have good response to wind fluctuations with periods down to one second. A brief account is given of some observations made at Cardington, Beds., and some examples are presented of records made at 1,000, 2,000 and 3,000 ft in contrasting meteorological conditions.