Thomas J. Lockhart, CCM, CMet
abstract
Measurement standards are used to implement regulatory compliance in a number of ways. As society moves toward the use of regulation to achieve the quality of life desired by an ever growing population density, the need for consensus standards grows. The measurement of wind is reasonably simple. The characterization of the measurement requires standard methods be applied if the values are to be used in the context of building codes, insurance claims, wind warnings, transport and diffusion modeling, wind-chill warnings, and private aircraft operations.
As the National Weather Service moves toward the use of ice-free wind sensors to replace the old cup and vane sensors, a new look is possible at measurement standards. Development field tests are used to find functional precision and operational comparability of candidate sensors. Both societal choices and technological methods are open to consideration before the new sensor technology is deployed. This paper shows the need to look critically at data reduction methods when developing specifications and performance judgements within this context.
There will be an on-going need to evaluate the impact of another sensor change on the operational or archived data streams. There is also an opportunity to revisit the question of surface wind characterization for the large variety of wind data users. As local and state-wide networks proliferate, the reward of standard characterizations on network integration also grows
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