Posters

Abstract

The most challenging wind measurement campaigns are typically run in complex terrain and cold climate environments, both in coastal and mountain regions. Here it is difficult to map the wind resource in detail as, there are typically large spatial variations in the wind field, both on the mesoscale and the local scale. Temporal variations will also be large and the flow at two nearby sites in complex terrain may often seem decoupled and not correlated. Meteorological masts are still the de facto choice of measurement platforms for wind for many campaigns, but their limitations may be particularly large in complex terrain. The main disadvantage is that the measurements may not represent adequatly the atmospheric flow a short distance from the masts; i.e. they may be sampling a very local wind which is to a small or large degree decoupled from the flow at nearby locations. Lidars can be used to overcome parts of the limitations associated with the masts. Namely, they can be used to probe the atmosphere a considerable distance away from the lidar itself, both in the vertical and the horizontal. It allows for continuous measurements of the wind in a larger area or at distant locations where mast cannot be placed, i.e. further aloft, over water bodies or steep terrain. We will present and discuss examples of measurements from such campaigns, highlighting the main advantages of using lidars, as well as discussing some of the challenges to running a succesful lidar campaign.