Characteristics and performance of wind profiles as observed by the radar wind profiler network of China

Abstract

Wind profiles are fundamental to the research and applications in boundary layer meteorology, air quality and numerical weather prediction. Large-scale wind profile data have been previously documented from network observations in several countries, such as Japan, the USA, various European countries and Australia, but nationwide wind profiles observations are poorly understood in China. In this study, the salient characteristics and performance of wind profiles as observed by the radar wind profiler network of China are investigated. This network consists of more than 100 stations instrumented with 1290 MHz Doppler radar designed primarily for measuring vertically resolved winds at various altitudes but mainly in the boundary layer. It has good spatial coverage, with much denser sites in eastern China. The wind profiles observed by this network can provide the horizontal wind direction, horizontal wind speed and vertical wind speed for every 120 m interval within the height of 0 to 3 km. The availability of the radar wind profiler network has been investigated in terms of effective detection height, data acquisition rate, data confidence and data accuracy. Further comparison analyses with reanalysis data indicate that the observation data at 89 stations are recommended and 17 stations are not recommended. The boundary layer wind profiles from China can provide useful input to numerical weather prediction systems at regional scales.