The airport network may observe winds and wind gusts for 24 hours per day, depending on the operating hours of the specific airport. Winds observed at the airport sites are averaged for two minutes. These data are used mainly for aviation and weather forecasting purposes, with some of the data transmitted across the nation and to other countries in real time. The other quantity observed at airports is the 3-second gust. The climate network may use automatic equipment to observe winds for 24 hours per day.
Most users are interested in historical hourly-mean wind data.
Different types of anemometers have been used for airports and climate stations because of the requirements of the primary users of the data . Figure 1 shows the aviation wind network and figure 2 the climate wind network. Airport stations and climate stations tend to pair closely together mainly because one is the airport site and the other is the town site. Data can be obtained from the AES digital archives for 426 airport sites and 460 climate sites. Not all of the 886 sites are operating now, and not all contain the same number of records.