First Measurements of Offshore Atmospheric Stability Profiles Along the US East Coast: Insights from the WFIP-3 Campaign

The 3rd Wind Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP-3), sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, aims to enhance our understanding of the atmospheric and oceanic dynamics that influence the wind resource within the marine atmospheric boundary layer. As part of WFIP-3, a multi-seasonal offshore field measurement campaign is currently underway, integrated with intensive numerical modeling development and validation efforts.

In the summer of 2024, an offshore barge was deployed south of the Massachusetts wind lease areas for approximately three months. Equipped, among other instruments, with an infrared spectrometer (IRS) and a scanning lidar, the barge collected unprecedented data. By retrieving vertical profiles of temperature from the IRS data using the TROPoe algorithm, we characterized the offshore atmospheric stability in the region and correlated it with observed wind profiles.

This presentation will showcase these observed wind and stability profiles, marking the first measurements of this kind in the U.S. offshore environment. As previous research has indicated that summer is the season with the lowest turbulence in this region, having direct measurements of atmospheric stability is crucial for the offshore wind industry to better predict impacts from wake losses in new wind farms.

Finally, we will compare the observed conditions with ERA5 data to assess the accuracy of this widely used wind reanalysis product in representing offshore winds and stability.