A comparison of vertical velocity variance measurements from wind profiling radars and sonic anemometers

McCaffrey, Katherine; Bianco, Laura; Johnston, Paul; Wilczak, James M.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-999-2017

Articles | Volume 10, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-999-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Special issue:

Pushing the limits: The eXperimental Planetary boundary layer...

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-999-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 10, issue 3

Research article

|

14 Mar 2017

Research article |

| 14 Mar 2017

A comparison of vertical velocity variance measurements from wind profiling radars and sonic anemometers

Katherine McCaffrey, Laura Bianco, Paul Johnston, and James M. Wilczak

Data sets

XPIA, Experimental Planetary Boundary Layer Instrumentation Assessment Julie Lundquist and Jim Wilczak https://a2e.energy.gov/projects/xpia

Short summary

Using an optimized turbulence mode of two wind profiling radars (449 MHz and 915 MHz) during the XPIA field campaign, we present improved measurements of vertical velocity variance at the resolved and unresolved scales, using first and second Doppler spectral moments, and the total variance over all scales. Comparisons with sonic anemometers gave strong results, particularly during the daytime convective period. Profiles up to 2 km are possible with the 449 MHz WPR and 1 km from the 915 MHz WPR.