Offshore wind profile measurements using a Doppler LIDAR at the Hazaki Oceanographical Research Station

Abstract

Vertical wind speed profiles near the coast were observed using a Doppler Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) system at the Hazaki Oceanographical Research Station (HORS) from September 17 to 26, 2013. The accuracies of the theoretical wind profile models of the log profile model and the Monin-Obukov similarity (MOS) theory were examined by comparing them to those of the observed wind profiles. As a result, MOS, which takes into account the stability effects during wind profile calculations, successfully estimated the wind profile more accurately than the log profile model when the wind was from a sea sector (from sea to land). Conversely, both models did not estimate the profile adequately when the wind was from a land sector (from land to sea). Moreover, the wind profile for the land sector was found to include an obvious diurnal cycle, which is relevant to the stability change over land. Consequently, it is found that the atmospheric stability plays an important roll to determine the offshore wind speed profiles near the coast for not only the sea sector but also the land sector.