Posters

Abstract

As wind energy development accelerates worldwide, many more campaigns are using SoDARs and LiDARs in addition to met masts. Lidar backscatter quality depends on the presence of aerosols, whereas the SoDAR's functionality depends on the thermal turbulence. The local atmospheric conditions impact any remote sensing devices, mainly the coastal desert conditions. Our WGEH site in Australia has the clean air(low aerosols), high temperature, shear inversion and dusty conditions. Currently, there are 4 met masts (160m height), 10 SoDARs (Fulcrum 3D) and 1 LiDAR (Zx LiDAR with continuous wave technology) in the site measuring at different locations, whereas the LiDAR and One SoDAR has been co-located with met mast for study purpose. The following is the expected outcome from the study with concurrent SoDAR and LiDAR data's are compared against met mast. * Data availability comparison between Zx LiDAR and Fulcrum 3D SoDARs at heights above met mast (>160m considering our site) * Turbulence profile comparison at hub height (~150m) * Shear profile comparison at rotor tip height (~250m), hub height (~150m) and rotor bottom height (~50m) to understand the inversion better * Stable atmospheric conditions classification (for every 10m interval) This study helps in understanding the performance of LiDAR and SoDAR at the site in comparison against the concurrent met mast measurement period and to take the decision on selecting the remote sensing devices for further expansion in the project. The study also helps to understand various atmospheric problems better that we currently experience above the met mast measurement height.