A study on turbulence and three-dimensional wind field based on observations of three wind lidars

To obtain atmospheric turbulence and three-dimensional wind field observations, cooperative observation experiments were carried out using three wind lidars. (1) Turbulence is detected based on the virtual tower stares cooperative observation technology (VTS) using three wind lidars. Comparison with observations of the three-dimensional ultrasonic anemometer (sonic) deployed on a meteorological tower indicates that the results of the VTS are good. The correlation coefficient, average error (BIAS), root mean square error (RMSE) of wind speed with 10 Hz frequency at 32 m between VTS and sonic are 0.92, 0.77 m/s and 0.41 m/s, respectively. For the atmospheric turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), the correlation coefficient, BIAS, RMSE are 0.99, −0.02 m²/s² and 0.08 m²/s², respectively. The wind speed observed by VTS has the same spectral structure as that observed by the sonic. (2) Three-dimensional wind field detection is also carried out by using the scan cooperative observation technology based on three wind lidars. The observations of scan agree well with observations of the conventional wind anemometer deployed on the meteorological tower. The correlation coefficients, BIAS, RMSE of 10 min average horizontal wind speed and direction at 90 m are 0.92 and 0.93, −0.41 m/s and 0°, 0.73 m/s and 34°, respectively. Compared with observation of a single wind lidar, the cooperative observation using three wind lidars show certain advantages in that it doesn't need to assume uniform wind and has higher observation accuracy, etc. However, the cooperative observation has higher requirements for observational environment, e.g., there should be no block on the beam of the three wind lidars, the observations must be synergistic, etc. In the application, it is necessary to make a reasonable observational plan based on actual observational needs.