Effects of a change of terrain height and roughness on a wind profile

✍ Scribed by R. L. Schwiesow; R. S. Lawrence

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1982
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 991 KB
• Volume: 22
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0006-8314
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00128059

✦ Synopsis

We have measured profiles of an onshore wind 200 m upwind and 200 m downwind from an abruptly rising shore using a remote-sensing Doppler lidar anemometer. Data were taken at heights between 4.7 and 66.5 m above sea level. Results show that the onshore velocity vector slopes upward 16.6 to 9.6", the amount depending on the height of measurement, due to the combined effects of a 1.7-m high bluff shoreline and the frictionally decelerated Row over land The profile 200 m inland has the expected deceleration at lower levels because of increased surface roughness and implies a velocity vector at 66.5 m height with an upward slope of approximately 18" (2.6 m s-r upward component, 8.4 m s-r vector magnitude), an acceleration to 0.3 m s-r greater than the upwind value, or a combination of both effects. All three options are consistent with mass continuity. The experiment exhibits the usefulness and limitations of a backscatter Doppler lidar for boundary-layer profile measurements in a horizontally inhomogeneous environment.