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Title: Assessing State-of-the-Art Capabilities for Probing the Atmospheric Boundary Layer: The XPIA Field Campaign

Journal Article · · Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
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  1. Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, and National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado
  2. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, Colorado
  3. The University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, Texas
  4. Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado
  5. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado
  6. University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, Maryland
  7. Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado
  8. Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas
  9. National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
  10. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington
  11. College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon
+ Show Author Affiliations

The synthesis of new measurement technologies with advances in high performance computing provides an unprecedented opportunity to advance our understanding of the atmosphere, particularly with regard to the complex flows in the atmospheric boundary layer. To assess current measurement capabilities for quantifying features of atmospheric flow within wind farms, the U.S. Dept. of Energy sponsored the eXperimental Planetary boundary layer Instrumentation Assessment (XPIA) campaign at the Boulder Atmospheric Observatory (BAO) in spring 2015. Herein, we summarize the XPIA field experiment design, highlight novel approaches to boundary-layer measurements, and quantify measurement uncertainties associated with these experimental methods. Line-of-sight velocities measured by scanning lidars and radars exhibit close agreement with tower measurements, despite differences in measurement volumes. Virtual towers of wind measurements, from multiple lidars or dual radars, also agree well with tower and profiling lidar measurements. Estimates of winds over volumes,conducted with rapid lidar scans, agree with those from scanning radars, enabling assessment of spatial variability. Microwave radiometers provide temperature profiles within and above the boundary layer with approximately the same uncertainty as operational remote sensing measurements. Using a motion platform, we assess motion-compensation algorithms for lidars to be mounted on offshore platforms. Finally, we highlight cases that could be useful for validation of large-eddy simulations or mesoscale numerical weather prediction, providing information on accessing the archived dataset. We conclude that modern remote Lundquist et al. XPIA BAMS Page 4 of 81 sensing systems provide a generational improvement in observational capabilities, enabling resolution of refined processes critical to understanding 61 inhomogeneous boundary-layer flows such as those found in wind farms.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
1347869
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-115298; WW0600000
Journal Information:
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, Vol. 98, Issue 2; ISSN 0003-0007
Publisher:
American Meteorological Society
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Sodar Observation of the ABL Structure and Waves over the Black Sea Offshore Site journal December 2019
An Assessment of Eddy-Covariance-Based Surface Fluxes Above an Evaporating Heated Surface Under Fair-Weather Daytime Conditions journal December 2018
Considerations for temperature sensor placement on rotary-wing unmanned aircraft systems journal January 2018
Validating precision estimates in horizontal wind measurements from a Doppler lidar journal January 2017
Estimation of turbulence dissipation rate from Doppler wind lidars and in situ instrumentation for the Perdigão 2017 campaign journal January 2019
LiDAR measurements for an onshore wind farm: Wake variability for different incoming wind speeds and atmospheric stability regimes journal December 2019
The Hydrometeorology Testbed–West Legacy Observing Network: Supporting Research to Applications for Atmospheric Rivers and Beyond journal September 2019
Improved observations of turbulence dissipation rates from wind profiling radars journal January 2017
On the Use of Rotary-Wing Aircraft to Sample Near-Surface Thermodynamic Fields: Results from Recent Field Campaigns journal December 2018
Evaluation of single and multiple Doppler lidar techniques to measure complex flow during the XPIA field campaign journal January 2017
Perdigão 2015: methodology for atmospheric multi-Doppler lidar experiments journal January 2017
A New Planetary Boundary Layer Scheme Based on LES: Application to the XPIA Campaign journal August 2019
The VERTEX field campaign: observations of near-ground effects of wind turbine wakes journal January 2019
Thermal Structure of a Coastal–Urban Boundary Layer journal May 2018
Assessment of virtual towers performed with scanning wind lidars and Ka-band radars during the XPIA experiment journal January 2017
Powering the 21st century by wind energy—Options, facts, figures journal September 2019
Aerosol and boundary-layer interactions and impact on air quality journal September 2017
Estimation of turbulence dissipation rate and its variability from sonic anemometer and wind Doppler lidar during the XPIA field campaign journal January 2018
Evaluation of turbulence measurement techniques from a single Doppler lidar journal January 2017
Wind sensing with drone-mounted wind lidars: proof of concept journal January 2020
Initial results from a field campaign of wake steering applied at a commercial wind farm – Part 1 journal January 2019
Identification of tower-wake distortions using sonic anemometer and lidar measurements journal January 2017
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