From ancient times to the present, how have we "dealt with" the wind?

In recent days, strong winds have occurred in many places including Beijing, central Inner Mongolia, northern and eastern North China.

Wind is like a spirit hidden in the world, invisible but leaving traces everywhere. From ancient oracle bone inscriptions to the exquisite meteorological instruments of the Han Dynasty to modern advanced wind power generation facilities, people have always "dealt with" wind in unique ways throughout the ages, writing stories of harmonious coexistence between man and nature.

Ancient way to observe the wind: Feathers to identify the wind and black heads to determine the wind direction

The Yin people carved oracle bones to record the names of the four winds, and the Zhou people used "qiàn" to measure wind direction, which was the beginning of wind measurement in China. During the Yin and Shang dynasties, our ancestors tied "wind-hunting feathers" made of bird feathers to the wind poles to judge the incoming wind by the direction of the feathers fluttering.

In the Han Dynasty, wind measuring tools had their first innovation. The bronze phoenix on the roof of Emperor Wu of Han's Jianzhang Palace "had a hinge underneath and flew toward the wind". Its ability to rotate with the wind was invented a thousand years earlier than the Western wind-watching chicken. Zhang Heng of the Eastern Han Dynasty cast a "wind-measuring bronze crow", which was improved into a lightweight wooden crow during the Northern and Southern Dynasties. "It moves when there is wind, and the direction the crow's head points to is the wind direction". This invention was widely used in the palace, vehicles, ships and border defense.

In the Tang Dynasty, Li Chunfeng made a groundbreaking breakthrough in Yi Si Zhan, subdividing wind direction into 24 directions and establishing a "10-level wind force" system based on natural phenomena such as "moving leaves, rustling branches, broken branches, and falling objects." This was more than 1,100 years earlier than the European Beaufort wind scale and was unprecedented in the history of world wind measurement.

During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Shen Kuo's "Mengxi Bitan" recorded in detail the shape and disaster of tornadoes "piercing the sky like goat horns", which became the first scientific report on tornadoes in my country; the southeast monsoon was named "Bochu (chuō) wind" because it helped merchant ships return, reflecting the ancient people's mastery of the laws of the monsoon. After the introduction of Western meteorology in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, traditional wisdom was combined with modern science, promoting the transformation of theories to modern concepts such as "air pressure" and "atmospheric circulation".

Today’s Wind Driving: Wind Turbines Lock Green Power Grid to Measure Wind and Cloud

Nowadays, people's "communication" with wind is not only limited to observation, but also extends to "controlling" it. Faced with the environmental problems caused by fossil fuels, wind power generation has become the key to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting energy transformation, and is the core force of sustainable development.

"The core threshold for wind farm site selection is an annual average wind speed of 5 meters per second and an annual equivalent full-power hour of more than 2,000 hours." Jia Beixi, a senior engineer at the Wind and Solar Energy Center of the China Meteorological Administration, emphasized that the development of wind energy requires comprehensive consideration of multiple factors such as the stability of prevailing winds and grid access conditions. The rotation of the wind turbine impeller hides precise rules: it starts at 3 meters per second and reaches rated power at 12 meters per second. Once the wind speed exceeds 25 meters per second (level 10 wind), the protection system immediately triggers shutdown. The design wind speed usually does not exceed 50 meters per second, and extreme weather can easily exceed the equipment limit.

This shows the force majeure of nature. But despite the challenges, human beings are determined to "control the wind and paint green scenery". In order to accurately capture wind energy resources, my country's meteorological department has built an integrated "air-sky-ground" monitoring network - a 1-kilometer resolution resource survey system integrates data to generate 4 sets of refined data sets, and the wind and solar resource forecast system covers 0 hours to 14 days, providing decision-making support for power grid dispatching. Today, the ancients' "wind flag" has become a real-time data stream, and Su Shi's "Bofan wind" has also become wind turbine power.

Future wind disasters: Climate-driven winds are becoming more frequent and more powerful

As global warming intensifies, winds are becoming more intense and frequent. Kong Feng, an associate professor at China Agricultural University, pointed out that global warming increases the frequency and intensity of strong winds through three mechanisms: temperature difference driving, strong convection stimulation, and climate system disturbance.

First, the uneven warming speed in different regions has led to a widening of the temperature difference between high and low latitudes and between land and sea, and an increase in the pressure gradient, which has accelerated air flow. For example, the accelerated warming in the Arctic has weakened the polar vortex, and cold air has frequently moved south, resulting in frequent strong winds in northern my country in winter; the surface temperature in the north is relatively high, forming a greater temperature difference with the cold air moving south, further strengthening the pressure gradient and wind force.

Secondly, as the temperature rises, atmospheric energy and water vapor increase, atmospheric instability increases, and strong convective activities are more likely to trigger extreme wind events such as thunderstorms, gales, and squall lines.

Thirdly, global warming interferes with climate phenomena such as El Nino and La Nina, changing the atmospheric circulation pattern. In addition, the degradation of vegetation in the north reduces surface friction, and the melting of Arctic sea ice reshapes the circulation pattern, which together contribute to the increase in wind speed. Data show that although the average wind speed near the ground is on a downward trend, the number of extreme wind events has increased significantly.

Han Rongqing, a researcher at the National Climate Center, believes that ocean warming provides an "energy reservoir" for super typhoons. Tropical cyclones rely on sea temperature and water vapor to store energy. Global warming raises sea surface temperatures, directly increasing the upper limit of typhoon intensity. The wind speed of some tropical cyclones can surge within 24 hours. Studies have shown that for every 1°C increase in sea temperature, the potential intensity of typhoons increases by about 5%. In the future, extreme typhoons may break through historical extremes more frequently.

From wind feathers to wind turbine matrices, humans are constantly exploring ways to get along with the wind. In the face of the storm caused by climate change, only by jointly shouldering the responsibility of carbon reduction and protecting the laws of nature can we anchor hope in the interaction with the wind.

(The author Yu Tong is a reporter from China Meteorological News)