Wind measurement

Unlike most meteorological measurements, which are scalars, wind speed is a vector.

To fully determine it, three pieces of information are needed: either the three components or the magnitude and the direction (determined by two angles).

However, since the vertical component (at least on average) is usually very small compared to the horizontal components of wind speed, and measuring the vertical component is therefore quite difficult, wind speed is usually understood as the horizontal component. To determine this, two pieces of information are sufficient: either the two components (NS, WO) or Amount and further information on wind direction measurement".