Evaluation of wind field reconstruction methods for floating vertical profiler lidars

Presentation Description: As offshore wind energy grows, floating lidars are increasingly being used instead of fixed platforms or met masts. A key challenge in offshore conditions is buoy motion. This motion creates artificial turbulence, which increases uncertainty in the lidar measurements. VAISALA has developed Hybrid Wind Field Reconstruction (WFR) for its fixed vertical profiler lidars. The Hybrid WFR combines both scalar and vector averaging and reduces wind speed sensitivity to wind turbulences. The objective is to assess the performance of the various WFRs in offshore conditions and determine which one is the best method for floating vertical profiling lidar.WindCube Offshore mounted on buoy from several units with different altitude configurations are analyzed. Real time WindCube buoy data is averaged in scalar, vector, and hybrid WFR, without motion compensation, and compared to fixed reference profiling lidars.The same comparisons are performed with motion-compensated averaged real time WindCube buoy data.Wind speed and wind direction correlations between the different wind field reconstruction methods and the reference instruments are thoroughly evaluated with industry Key Performance Indicators. The different WFR methods show different sensitivities to the buoy motion, similar to their different sensitivities to atmospheric conditions alone.This study shows how the choice of WFR method can generate more accurate wind measurements, reducing turbulence sensitivity due to the lidar motion.