High accuracy wind shear measurement with a compact pulsed Coherent Doppler Lidar

LEOSPHERE Company recently introduced its innovative pulsed Doppler Lidar wind profiler, the WindCubeTM. This compact pulsed coherent Doppler lidarI(45kg) is able to probe the lower atmosphere up to 300m, depending on atmospheric conditions. In order to prove the good accuracy of the system, several comparison campaigns with mast mounted calibrated cup anemometer has been performed in 2007 [An innovative and compact 1.5µm Lidar for the wind industry, R. Parmentier et al., EWEC 2007 Conference, Milan, Italy]. These campaigns have been conducted all over Europe, in Danemark at the RISOE site, in France near by a 165m tall mast, in the Netherlands at Cabauw and finally in Beijing near by a 325m mast. Accurate Lidar measurement has been demonstrated showing ~0.3m/s standard deviation on Lidar vs. cup measurements differences, with an raw accumulation time of 1s. Also data availability showed more than 90% at all heights whatever the weather conditions.

This paper present main comparison campaigns results. We describe the Lidar measurement process and probe volume from both theoretical and experimental aspects. We will show the different configurations chozen in term of conical scan angle, depending on the terrain complexity. We investigate further on wind profile measurement under strong wind shear and veer in order to confirm the significant probed volume does not bias the measurement. Detailed analysis of Lidar accuracy in these conditions is reported.

Hence we will show the on going developments that will allow to gain longer range up to the top of tempered PBL with the same accuracy than the actual WindCube™.