Offshore winds using remote sensing techniques

Abstract

Ground-based remote sensing instruments can observe winds at different levels in the atmosphere where the wind characteristics change with height: the range of heights where modern turbine rotors are operating. A six-month wind assessment campaign has been made with a LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) and a SoDAR (Sound Detection and Ranging) on the transformer/platform of the world's largest offshore wind farm located at the West coast of Denmark to evaluate their ability to observe offshore winds. The high homogeneity and low turbulence levels registered allow the comparison of LiDAR and SoDAR with measurements from cups on masts surrounding the wind farm showing good agreement for both the mean wind speed and the longitudinal component of turbulence. An extension of mean wind speed profiles from cup measurements on masts with LiDAR observations results in a good match for the free sectors at different wind speeds. The log-linear profile is fitted to the extended profiles (averaged over all stabilities and roughness lengths) and the deviations are small. Extended profiles of turbulence intensity are also shown for different wind speeds up to 161 m. Friction velocities and roughness lengths calculated from the fitted log-linear profile are compared with the Charnock model which seems to overestimate the sea roughness for the free sectors. © 2007 IOP Publishing Ltd.