Field calibration of cup anemometers

An outdoor calibration facility for cup anemometers, where the signals from 10 anemometers of which at least one is a reference can be can be recorded simultaneously, has been established. The results are discussed with special emphasis on the statisticalsignificance of the calibration expressions. It is concluded that the method has the advantage that many anemometers can be calibrated accurately with a minimum of work and cost. The obvious disadvantage is that the calibration of a set of anemometersmay take more than one month in order to have wind speeds covering a sufficiently large magnitude range in a wind direction sector where we can be sure that the instruments are exposed to identical, simultaneous wind flows. Another main conclusion is thatstatistical uncertainty must be carefully evaluated since the individual 10 minute wind-speed averages are not statistically independent.