Weather station with zero moving parts

[Joel Wright]

I've never heard of anything like this before. I hope this hasn't been posted already, but I thought this was sort of interesting.

Check this out...only $4K!
http://www.ambientweather.com/wewe521.html

You gotta wonder how accurate wind measurements are without the typical anemometer. I would hope it's accurate for 4 grand. Have any of you guys seen one of these, or something similar? I'm kind of curious as to how accurate these are.

One problem I can think of for something like this is the fact that the thermometer needs to be about 6 feet above the ground to be accurate, and the anemometer needs to be up around 30 feet.

 

[Rob Sermon]

Perhaps the wind blowing through the slotted veins may make some sort of Venturi effect. Instead of a manometer it might have a simple diaphram.

 

[Scott Weberpal]

Ultrasonic anamometers have been around for some time. They essentially the speed and direction of air particles passing between the veins. Gill instruments is a well known vendor of ultrasonic anamometers...

http://www.gill.co.uk/products/anemometer/anemometer.htm

 

[Michael P. Morris]

It looks like a WXT510/WXT520, manufactured by Vaisala. They are in use on the Oklahoma City Micronet, so the observations are of research quality. If you can afford it, I would definitely say it's worth the investment.