A fiber optic wind vane: A conceptual view

The use of tall towers for the normal operation of meteorological instrumentation is ideal for ensuring that representative measurements are obtained relative to the nearby terrain. Tall towers also expose instrumentation to unwanted environmental side-effects such as lightning surges. The proximity of many industrial observation sites for meteorological towers also introduces unwanted problems including radio frequency interference (RFI) from radio, television, or microwave transmitters, explosive environments, and electrical power cabling. Typical meteorological instrumentation systems incorporate protective mechanisms such as grounding networks, surge protectors and electrical shielding to combat electrical problems. Still, even with elaborate protective systems, damages to instrumentation and a loss of valid data can occur which often results in extended outages. The use of fiber optic technology in meteorological instrumentation holds great promise to eliminate many of the problems associated with monitoring on tall towers. A fiber optic sensor would be impervious to lightning surges and all forms of RFI. The sensor would provide a high signal to noise ratio output since little or no electrical interference would be involved in data transmission. A longer field life for mechanical devices such as a wind vane would be realized since all physical contact points, such as those found in a potentiometer, would be eliminated. Therefore, the precision, resolution, linearity, starting threshold and accuracy could be dramatically improved without the hindrance of moving parts