Title: Evaluation of single and multiple Doppler lidar techniques to measure complex flow during the XPIA field campaign

Abstract

Accurate three-dimensional information of wind flow fields can be an important tool in not only visualizing complex flow but also understanding the underlying physical processes and improving flow modeling. However, a thorough analysis of the measurement uncertainties is required to properly interpret results. The XPIA (eXperimental Planetary boundary layer Instrumentation Assessment) field campaign conducted at the Boulder Atmospheric Observatory (BAO) in Erie, CO, from 2 March to 31 May 2015 brought together a large suite of in situ and remote sensing measurement platforms to evaluate complex flow measurement strategies. In this paper, measurement uncertainties for different single and multi-Doppler strategies using simple scan geometries (conical, vertical plane and staring) are investigated. The tradeoffs (such as time–space resolution vs. spatial coverage) among the different measurement techniques are evaluated using co-located measurements made near the BAO tower. Sensitivity of the single-/multi-Doppler measurement uncertainties to averaging period are investigated using the sonic anemometers installed on the BAO tower as the standard reference. Finally, the radiometer measurements are used to partition the measurement periods as a function of atmospheric stability to determine their effect on measurement uncertainty. It was found that with an increase in spatial coverage and measurement complexity, the uncertainty in the wind measurement alsomore » increased. For multi-Doppler techniques, the increase in uncertainty for temporally uncoordinated measurements is possibly due to requiring additional assumptions of stationarity along with horizontal homogeneity and less representative line-of-sight velocity statistics. Lastly, it was also found that wind speed measurement uncertainty was lower during stable conditions compared to unstable conditions.« less

Authors:

Choukulkar, Aditya ;

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0003-1007-0267"

Brewer, W. Alan; Sandberg, Scott P.; Weickmann, Ann; Bonin, Timothy A.; Hardesty, R. Michael; Lundquist, Julie K. ;

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Lundquist, Julie K."
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0001-5490-2702"

Delgado, Ruben; Iungo, G. Valerio ;

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Iungo, G. Valerio"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-0990-8133"

Ashton, Ryan; Debnath, Mithu; Bianco, Laura; Wilczak, James M.; Oncley, Steven; Wolfe, Daniel

Publication Date:

Mon Jan 23 00:00:00 EST 2017

Research Org.:

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)

OSTI Identifier:

1341344

Alternate Identifier(s):

OSTI ID: 1344326

Report Number(s):

NREL/JA-5000-67999
Journal ID: ISSN 1867-8548

Grant/Contract Number:  

SC0011561; AC36-08GO28308

Resource Type:

Published Article

Journal Name:

Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (Online)

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Name: Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (Online) Journal Volume: 10 Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 1867-8548

Publisher:

Copernicus Publications, EGU

Country of Publication:

Germany

Language:

English

Subject:

17 WIND ENERGY; eXperimental Planetary boundary layer Instrumentation Assessment; XPIA; wind flow fields; flow modeling