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The Wind Cube

WHOI scientist Anthony Kirincich (right) and Matthew Filippelli from AWS Truepower, Inc., install a Wind Cube device atop WHOI’s 76-foot Air-Sea Interaction Tower two miles off Martha’s Vineyard. The Wind Cube emits a laser pulse 10,000 times per second that measures wind speeds between 10 and 200 meters (33 and 656 feet) above it. The device is expected to be in place for three years. It will help the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center gather more accurate wind speed data for plans to expand the use of offshore wind turbines to diversify the state’s energy sources. Second-by-second wind data will be transmitted via undersea cables to WHOI’s Martha’s Vineyard Coastal Observatory and posted online for general scientific use.(Photo by Matthew Barton, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)