This is probably why it was chosen for such a challenging mission, carrying T. An anemometer is a wind speed meter that captures measurements on air velocity. Still frame of an illustrated anemometer highlighted in an animation window. the rotor to start when the anemometer reads that there is enough wind. The anemometer measures wind speed and transmits wind speed data to the controller. This was not entirely unexpected because the incredibly dense Venusian air moves sluggishly, as sea currents might do.Īlthough there are many modern methods to measure wind speed and direction, the cup anemometer design is noted for its simplicity and robustness. Betzs limit refers to the fact that if more than this amount of wind energy is. Ultrasonic anemometers use sound waves to measure wind speed. Any tool used to measure the speed of wind in the science of meteorology is referred to as an anemometer. If all you want to do is measure wind velocity then an easy-to-use, inexpensive anemometer will. The word anemometer is derived from the word 'anemos' - a Greek word that means 'wind'. This simple anemometer measures wind speeds from 1 to up to 67 miles per hour. They showed a very gentle breeze blowing across the landing site, only a few feet per second. An anemometer is a weather tool that is used to measure the wind's speed. Anemometer data beamed back to Earth from the lander were the first ever wind measurements from the surface of another planet. On board the probe was the ISV-75 anemometer, a space-age variant of Robinson’s original cup design, built to withstand the scorching temperatures and crushing pressures found at Venus’s surface. Right: The Venera 9 lander, complete with cup anemometer (circled). Left: The Robinson cup anemometer at the top of Armagh Observatory. After drifting silently through space for two days, the capsule fell through Venus’s atmosphere and landed on the surface where it survived for 53 min, not a small feat given the inhospitable conditions at the planet “next door”. When Thomas Romney Robinson, director of the Armagh Observatory, invented the cup anemometer in 1846, little did he know that one day his invention would be recording the alien breeze on the surface of another world.įast forward 130 years: On 20 October 1975, a small capsule detached from the Soviet Venera 9 spacecraft headed for Venus. A barometer is a scientific instrument used to measure atmospheric pressure, also called barometric pressure.The atmosphere is the layers of air wrapped around Earth.

Anemometer facts