Wind rose

The wind rose is a special type of axis chart to display meteorological wind data.

History

During a relatively short period were the compass and wind blowing from that direction, viewed as virtually synonymous and the wind rose is found as a predecessor of the compass rose on maps and atlases as an aid to navigation again. But even before that, so since about Homer's time (800 BC), the Windrose was designed for meteorological purposes.

Division

Wind roses are mostly in 16 points of the compass, ie North (N), NNE, NE, etc. divided, but the division can also be selected for up to 32 directions.

With respect to the angle measured in degrees corresponds North = 0 ° or 360 ° = 90 °, East, South and West = 180 ° = 270 °.

Use

For graphical representation of wind, together with the direction and speed at a place meteorologists use a polar coordinate system, in which they must record this data. When this complex mapping process also barely has similarity with the compass rose of sailors, yet the name has been preserved.

The Polar grid, the wind situation over a long period on the basis of wind direction are shown in the wind rose diagram. In addition, the wind force is characterized by different colors as well as the frequency of occurrence with the corresponding segment length.

The creation of a wind rose is in the design of take-off and landing runways one of the preparatory steps, as the best aircraft takeoff and landing conditions usually find against the wind.

According to the same schema diagrams can be created for other climatically relevant variables such as pressure, temperature or precipitation to allow short-term weather forecasts, long-term forecasts and analysis of interdependencies.