Revisiting wind speed measurements using actively heated fiber optics: a wind tunnel study

van Ramshorst, Justus G. V.; Coenders-Gerrits, Miriam; Schilperoort, Bart; van de Wiel, Bas J. H.; Izett, Jonathan G.; Selker, John S.; Higgins, Chad W.; Savenije, Hubert H. G.; van de Giesen, Nick C.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-5423-2020

Articles | Volume 13, issue 10

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-5423-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-5423-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 13, issue 10

Research article

|

13 Oct 2020

Research article |

| 13 Oct 2020

Revisiting wind speed measurements using actively heated fiber optics: a wind tunnel study

Justus G. V. van Ramshorst, Miriam Coenders-Gerrits, Bart Schilperoort, Bas J. H. van de Wiel, Jonathan G. Izett, John S. Selker, Chad W. Higgins, Hubert H. G. Savenije, and Nick C. van de Giesen

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Final revised paper (published on 13 Oct 2020)
Preprint (discussion started on 12 Mar 2019)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Review report: Wind speed measurements using distributed fiber optics: a wind tunnel study', Anonymous Referee #1, 20 Apr 2019
- AC1: 'Author comments review 1', Justus van Ramshorst, 23 Jul 2019
RC2: 'Review report', Anonymous Referee #2, 25 Jun 2019
- AC2: 'Author comments review 2', Justus van Ramshorst, 23 Jul 2019

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Justus van Ramshorst on behalf of the Authors (13 Sep 2019) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (28 Sep 2019) by Ad Stoffelen

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (10 Nov 2019)

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (13 Nov 2019) by Ad Stoffelen

AR by Justus van Ramshorst on behalf of the Authors (28 Nov 2019) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (15 Dec 2019) by Ad Stoffelen

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (31 Dec 2019)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

The study of van Ramshorst et al. investigated the actively heated fiber-optic (AHFO) technique and estimated its accuracy and precision under controlled airflow conditions by comparing to a three-dimensional ultrasonic anemometer. A valuable error prediction equation for the wind speed measurements at different heating rates was developed, as the heating rate can be a limiting factor for long cables. This equation is also accounting for averaging over space or time which further increases precision. They conclude that AHFO measurements are reliable in outdoor deployments when correcting the measurements for directional sensitivity with a ultrasonic anemometer, choosing the right heating rate and spatial or temporal averaging.
Distributed temperature sensing (DTS) measures temperatures along a fiber-optic cable spatially continuously and can be used in various fields. Especially for atmospheric research this technique offers new insight into the temperature field and thus was implemented in many studies. By using the AHFO technique, wind speed measurements can be added to the system. As the community using the DTS and AHFO technique is growing, the study of van Ramshorst et al. is important for users to be aware of the accuracy, precision and limitation of this technique. Hence, the paper is valuable for our community.
The manuscript improved substantially. It is well organized and leads the reader through the whole manuscript. I still have one major point: The manuscript propose to develop an error prediction function being valid for any kind of setup. However, the error prediction function is not tested or validated with the existing data set nor is the last point discussed accordingly. I did get a table in the authors’ response to compare different approaches of the error prediction function, however, this table is not well explained. Further, no values derived from the prediction function is compared to actually measured quantities neither in the table nor in the manuscript. As the error prediction function is one main goal of the manuscript, either the authors need to explicitly state that the error prediction function needs to be validated in another experiment or another section validating the error prediction function is added to the manuscript. I recommend to accept the submitted manuscript after major revisions. More detailed comments are given in the uploaded file.

Referee Report: PDF

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ED: Reconsider after major revisions (03 Jan 2020) by Ad Stoffelen

AR by Justus van Ramshorst on behalf of the Authors (06 Feb 2020) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (07 Feb 2020) by Ad Stoffelen

RR by Lena Pfister (04 Mar 2020)

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (04 Mar 2020) by Ad Stoffelen

AR by Justus van Ramshorst on behalf of the Authors (15 Apr 2020) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (20 Apr 2020) by Ad Stoffelen

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (11 May 2020)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

The study of van Ramshorst et al. investigated the actively heated fiber-optic (AHFO) technique and estimated its accuracy and precision under controlled airflow conditions by comparing to a three-dimensional ultrasonic anemometer. A valuable error prediction equation for the wind speed measurements at different heating rates was developed, as the heating rate can be a limiting factor for long cables. This equation is also accounting for averaging over space or time which further increases precision. They conclude that AHFO measurements are reliable in outdoor deployments when correcting the measurements for directional sensitivity with a ultrasonic anemometer, choosing the right heating rate and spatial or temporal averaging.
Distributed temperature sensing (DTS) measures temperatures along a fiber-optic cable spatially continuously and can be used in various fields. Especially for atmospheric research this technique offers new insight into the temperature field and thus was implemented in many studies. By using the AHFO technique, wind speed measurements can be added to the system. As the community using the DTS and AHFO technique is growing, the study of van Ramshorst et al. is important for users to be aware of the accuracy, precision and limitation of this technique. The paper is very valuable for our community and I would like to see the manuscript being published.
After a view rounds of review is still feel that a view issues are not addressed: 1) statements which needs further context for the reader & 2) Checking all equations for consistency and correctness.
I recommend to have another person check the manuscript and accept the submitted manuscript after major revisions.

Referee Report: PDF

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ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (17 Jul 2020) by Ad Stoffelen

AR by Justus van Ramshorst on behalf of the Authors (24 Jul 2020) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (10 Aug 2020) by Ad Stoffelen

AR by Justus van Ramshorst on behalf of the Authors (21 Aug 2020)

Short summary

In this work we present experimental results of a novel actively heated fiber-optic (AHFO) observational wind-probing technique. We utilized a controlled wind-tunnel setup to assess both the accuracy and precision of AHFO under a range of operational conditions (wind speed, angles of attack and temperature differences). AHFO has the potential to provide high-resolution distributed observations of wind speeds, allowing for better spatial characterization of fine-scale processes.