I heard that there are ways to measure wind speed independent of the direction other than the usual anemometer or acoustic Doppler profilers, with a setup without any moving parts. Could somebody please help me with what devices could be meant and how they are called?
Any kind of Pivot tube device needs to be aligned with the wind direction to be able to measure, so it cannot be one of those.
There is a device called a hot-wire anemometer in which an electrically-heated wire is exposed to airflow. fast airflow means lots of heat transfer, which cools the wire. The temperature coefficient of resistivity of the wire is known, so the velocity of the ambient moving air can be correlated to the resistance of the wire and thence to the current flowing through it.
In this way, the airflow velocity can be deduced by monitoring the current through the wire.
