Splitting Wind direction into four quadrants

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Hello,
I had u & V component of wind. I converted them to wind speed & direction, using
wind_speed=sqrt((u^2)+(v^2));
wind_direction=180 + atand(u/v);
The problem is wind direction is not splitting into quadrants. As done here http://wx.gmu.edu/dev/clim301/lectures/wind/wind-uv.html

Accepted Answer

Chad Greene
Chad Greene on 15 Jan 2016
I think Kelly is partly correct. You'll need the four-quadrant version of atand, which is called atan2d.
Another quick tip: Instead of this:
wind_speed=sqrt((u^2)+(v^2));
you can use
wind_speed=hypot(u,v);
which is less prone to typos.
  1 Comment
Student new
Student new on 15 Jan 2016
Edited: Student new on 15 Jan 2016
Thanks alot Star Strider, you made my day..
You are right i was doing a mistake of (/). But i can not see comment of Star strider now..

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More Answers (1)

Kelly Kearney
Kelly Kearney on 15 Jan 2016
As mentioned in those lecture notes, you'll need to use atan2 instead of atan (not atand either... your inputs aren't in degrees!) to get the four-quadrant result you want.
  3 Comments
Kelly Kearney
Kelly Kearney on 15 Jan 2016
Right, never mind on the degrees comment. I was mistakenly reversing inputs and outputs in my head. But as Chad answered, you still need the atan2d variant.

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