Identification

Title

Multi-lidar wind resource mapping in complex terrain

Abstract

Scanning Doppler lidars have great potential for reducing uncertainty of wind resource estimation in complex terrain. Due to their scanning capabilities, they can measure at multiple locations over large areas. We demonstrate this ability with dual-Doppler lidar measurements of flow over two parallel ridges. The data have been collected using two pairs of scanning lidars operated in a dual-Doppler mode during the Perdigão 2017 measurement campaign. There the scanning lidars mapped the flow 80 m above ground level along two ridges, which are considered favorable for wind turbine siting. The measurements are validated with sonic wind measurements at each ridge. By analyzing the collected data, we found that wind speeds are on average 10 % higher over the southwest ridge compared to the northeast ridge. At the southwest ridge, the data show, for approach flow normal to the ridge, a change of 20 % in wind speed along the ridge. Fine differences like these are difficult to reproduce with computational flow models, as we demonstrate by comparing the lidar measurements with Weather Research and Forecasting large-eddy simulation (WRF-LES) results. For the measurement period, we have simulated the flow over the site using WRF-LES to compare how well the model can capture wind resources along the ridges. We used two model configurations. In the first configuration, surface drag is based purely on aerodynamic roughness, whereas in the second configuration forest canopy drag is also considered. We found that simulated winds are underestimated in WRF-LES runs with forest drag due to an unrealistic forest distribution on the ridge tops. The correlation of simulated and observed winds is, however, improved when the forest parameterization is applied. WRF-LES results without forest drag overestimated the wind resources over the southwest and northeast ridges by 6.5 % and 4.5 %, respectively. Overall, this study demonstrates the ability of scanning lidars to map wind resources in complex terrain.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7t43xc6

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2020-08-24T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

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Conformity

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version of format

Constraints related to access and use

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Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact