The TALA, or Tethered Aerodynamic Lifting Anemometer, is a type of Kite Wind Speed Meter or anemometer, a device for measuring the wind speed at the kite using ground-based measurements. The TALA repository consists of the TALA kite, kite-specific corrections to ground-based measurements, as well as a kit of recommended tools for taking the required ground based measurements. Together these components form the TALA kit.
- The TALA kite
- Lookup tables and equations for extrapolating air speed from measurments by:
- correcting altitude measurements for line sag
- correcting wind speed measurements for air density
- A Measurement procedure
- Measurement equipment:
- Spring scale for line tension
- marked kite line for counting the amount of line in the air (or fishing line length counter)
- compass for wind direction
- inclinometer for the angle of the kite
- thermometer for ground temperature
- barometer for ground pressure
The kite was originally designed by Raymond P. Holland Jr. and adapted by Charles F. Woodhouse for anemometry into the TALA product sold by Approach Fish until some time in the early 1990's. The invention is covered by expired US patents 3,767,145, 4,058,010, 4,152,933 & 4,221,351. These plans are released under the CERN OHL 1.2, compiling ongoing Public Lab research on the TALA into a DIY kit.
The TALA was imagined as an automated kite flight and measurement system providing local weather conditions at airports, but was usually flown by hand with a spring gauge used in the current TALA kit. Learn more about the TALA and kite anemometer research in the Public Lab Wiki.
The TALA repository is a project of Mathew Lippincott and @Ecta64 to create a stable device replicating the TALA and licensed under CERN OHL 1.2.
To read more about using kite anemometers and find resources and sources used in this repository, visit headfullofair.com/tags/kite-anemometers.
To learn more about contibuting, please read our contribution guidelines.