Representativeness of Lidar Wind Measurements over Moderately Complex Terrain

Coherent Doppler lidars can provide accurate horizontal and vertical information on profiles of wind flow variables such as wind speed, direction, and turbulence at high spatial resolutions. Such measurements are well suited to understanding physical processes within the boundary layer and validating wind forecast models. However, interpreting the differences between measurements and model outputs is challenging without a proper understanding of the spatial representativeness of the measurements. This paper presents analysis of measurements from several lidars obtained during the Lidar Uncertainty Measurement Experiment (LUMEX) at Boulder Atmospheric Observatory site from June 23—July 14, 2014.Data collected by two scanning Doppler lidars and 2 wind profiling lidars over moderately complex in Northern Colorado (about 25 km East of the Rocky Mountains) near the Boulder Atmospheric Observatory are used to determine the representativeness of wind profile measurements as a function of spatial footprint (defined by retrieval technique used) and spatial separation. In addition to the analysis of the representativeness of measured wind profiles, the paper discusses the sensitivity and accuracy of a commercial lidar (Leosphere 200S) data comparing to the NOAA High Resolution Doppler Lidar (HRDL). Examples of wind profiles will be presented along with a discussion of the methodology(s) used to evaluate the accuracy and representativeness of the measured winds.