Doppler lidar measurements of winds and turbulence in the boundary layer

Abstract

Coherent Doppler lidar is ideally suited for accurate measurements of the profiles of wind and turbulence using various beam scanning and processing techniques. The most attractive scanning pattern is a three dimensional pattern which samples the largest number of independent samples of the turbulent field. Careful processing of the radial velocity estimates is required to correct for the spatial filtering by the lidar pulse and to remove the bias introduced by the estimation error. The various processing techniques and fundamental assumptions will be presented. Lidar derived profiles of wind and turbulence will be compared with in situ data, when available. Results will also be presented from a field campaign focused on wind energy applications.