Standard Guide for Measurement of Atmospheric Wind and Turbulence Profiles by Acoustic Means

Importancia y uso:

5.1 Sodars have found wide applications for the remote measurement of wind and turbulence profiles in the atmosphere, particularly in the gap between meteorological towers and the lower range gates of wind profiling radars. The sodar’s far field acoustic power is also used for refractive index calculations and to estimate atmospheric stability, heat flux, and mixed layer depth (1-5).3 Sodars are useful for these purposes because of strong interaction between sound waves and the atmosphere’s thermal and velocity micro-structure that produce acoustic returns with substantial signal-to-noise ratios (SNR). The returned echoes are Doppler-shifted in frequency. This frequency shift, proportional to the radial velocity of the scattering surface, provides the basis for wind measurement. Advantages offered by sodar wind sounding technology include reasonably low procurement, operating, and maintenance costs, no emissions of eye-damaging light beams or electromagnetic radiation requiring frequency clearances, and adjustable frequencies and pulse lengths that can be used to optimize data quality at desired ranges and range resolutions. When properly sited and used with adequate sampling methods, sodars can provide continuous wind and turbulence profile information at height ranges from a few tens of meters to over a kilometer for typical averaging periods of 1 to 60 minutes.

Subcomité:

D22.11

Volúmen:

11.07

Número ICS:

17.140.99 (Other standards related to acoustics)

Palabras clave:

acoustic sounder; remote sensing; sodar; wind profiler; wind profiling;