Do airports measure wind speed at several elevations? Where can I get this data?

Answer 1

You can look at a couple different things. First, the SPC (there are many other sources as well, but this is a good one...) provides upper air maps:

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/obswx/maps/

I'd recommend using the .gif format, but suit yourself. 00Z means midnight Zulu, or Greenwich Mean Time. EST is 5 hours behind, so 00Z is data from 7PM EST radiosonde (balloon) flights, which won't be available until a couple hours or so after that. 12Z is 7AM EST data. Next, choose which mandatory pressure you want....925mb, 850, 700, etc. For example, 700mb data from 12Z today showed ~40-45knot WNW/NW'ly winds above Pittsburgh at a height of 2880 meters. (The little "flags" [these are wind barbs] have lines coming off them. Each full line is 10kts. Each half=5kts. Each "pennant"=50kts.)

As another example:

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/obswx/maps/300_070110_12.gif

That one shows 140kt NW'ly winds at 300mb over N Michigan. The red numbers are temps, the green numbers are dewpoints, in Celsius.

Another source, though also SPC:

http://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/mesoanalysis/s4/index2.html

Click on "Basic UA/Forcing Fields" in the left-hand column, then choose 850, 700, 500, or 250mb analysis.

Another:

http://weather.cod.edu/analysis/analysis.uprcon.html

Lastly, you can look at VAD (Vertical Azimuth Display) data from radar sites:

http://weather.cod.edu/analysis/analysis.radar.html

Click on a radar site, then near the bottom of the left-hand column, click on VAD. Sometimes the results aren't very good there, i.e. there's not much data available, but it's a resource anyway.

P.S. Bet you didn't know that radars also measure wind speeds and directions with the VAD. Most people don't know that. They are VERY cool to watch during a hurricane. I watched the Slidell LA VAD during Katrina until it went down, and suspected Katrina was not a cat4 at the time. This was confirmed by the NHC/TPC months later.

Answer 2

Internationally, wind speed and direction are measured at ten metres above the ground using anemometers. Winds aloft are measured using balloons. At many major airports pilots, using the on board computers, report the winds at different levels as they descend to land or ascend after take-off. These reports are useful for determining vertical wind shear near the ground.

The observations from the surface and the balloons would usually be available in one form or another to members of the public but the reports from aeroplanes have a more restricted circulation.

By the way, NOAA does an excellent job and it is the organisation to use if you are in the USA. It is not so useful in the rest of the world where each country has its own weather service.

Answer 3

The primary collector of weather data is not the airport, but the National Weather Service, part of NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) within the Department of Commerce. The National Weather Service often collects data at or near airports, because flyers are big consumers of weather data. Data on winds aloft can come from radiosondes - balloons that are released and then they record data while they ascend. Or upper atmosphere info may be measured or inferred from radar measurements.

You might start your search in the map section of weather.com

Answer 4

Airspeed is measured typically at 33 feet (10 meters) above the ground in knots (not miles per hour). Pilots need this information to gauge crosswind and other takeoff data. Airports also measure the direction from which the wind is blowing. For example, a wind of 255 and 25 knots means the wind is coming from the southwest quadrant at 25 knots. One knot is 6076 feet per hour. So 25 knots = [25*6076/3600]/88 = 28.8 mph or about 15% more than a mile per hour.

Airspeed at altitude is provided at the pilot's weather briefing before flying.

Answer 5

Get in touch with NOAA (National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration) this is a quasi-federal government
agency whose aim is to monitor world-wide weather conditions
from anything from satellite weather prediction stations, which
cover incoming weather systems to predict the weather patterns
that cause hurricanes, floods, high velocity winds, typhoons,
monsoons, tropical storms, the directions of the jet stream, the
trade winds, and lesser wind velocities.
NOAA has the latest equipment technology to keep up with
current and future prognostications regarding all changing
weather patterns and energy systems.
This includes measuring wind speeds at all of the local, regional,
and international airports.

To contact NOAA, they have a page on the web, or just go to google, and use their search engine, type in NOAA in their entry
bar, and hit return. or click on their hyperlink.
They are also listed in the yellow pages of any US telephone directory, or go through directory assistance with AT&T long distance info operator, or try the 800 number prefix, I used
to use 800-555-1212, don't know if that number is still valid or not.

I hope this helps you.


Thats my message, good luck.



Donald H. Sites
[e-mail]

PS:
Most main stream media gets all of its weather information from
NOAA or NOAA's agencies, assigned to monitor the weather,
and thats how it is done.

Answer 6

Yes they do.Call the airport and ask where to find what your looking for.

Answer 7

they do as does the weather department or in canada enviorment canada . if you go to the enviorment canada site it shows all that. if your a yanky then there should be somthing similar there too.