Francis Beaufort scale, decoded as 32–38 mph, or a "moderate Gale". Beaufort, like other patrons of exploration, has had his name given to many geographical places. Among these: Beaufort created the Beaufort cipher. It is a substitution cipher similar to the Vigenère cipher. Francis Beaufort Rear Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort, KCB, FRS, FRGS, FRAS, MRIA (; 27 May 1774 – 17 December 1857) was an Irish hydrographer and officer in the Royal Navy. Beaufort was the creator of the Beaufort Scale for indicating wind force. Francis Beaufort was descended from French Protestant Huguenots, who fled the French Wars of Religion in the
Wind in the source air mass. In California, downslope winds are funneled through mountain passes, which intensify their effect, and examples include the Santa Ana and sundowner winds. Wind speeds during downslope wind effect can exceed . As described earlier, prevailing and local winds are not spread evenly across the earth, which means that wind speeds also differ by region. In addition, the wind speed also increases with the altitude. Nowadays, a yardstick used to determine the best locations for wind energy development is referred to as wind power density (WPD). It is a calculation relating to the effective force of