Articles | Volume 6, issue 7
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-6-1673-2013
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-6-1673-2013
Research article
 | 
15 Jul 2013
Research article |  | 15 Jul 2013

Retrieving wind statistics from average spectrum of continuous-wave lidar

E. Branlard, A. T. Pedersen, J. Mann, N. Angelou, A. Fischer, T. Mikkelsen, M. Harris, C. Slinger, and B. F. Montes

Abstract. The aim of this study is to experimentally demonstrate that the time-average Doppler spectrum of a continuous-wave (cw) lidar is proportional to the probability density function of the line-of-sight velocities. This would open the possibility of using cw lidars for the determination of the second-order atmospheric turbulence statistics. An atmospheric field campaign and a wind tunnel experiment are carried out to show that the use of an average Doppler spectrum instead of a time series of velocities determined from individual Doppler spectra significantly reduces the differences with the standard deviation measured using ordinary anemometers, such as ultra-sonic anemometers or hotwires. The proposed method essentially removes the spatial averaging effect intrinsic to the cw lidar systems.

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