Validation of Doppler Wind Lidar during Super Typhoon Lekima (2019)

Abstract

This study undertook verification of the applicability and accuracy of wind data measured using a WindCube V2 Doppler Wind Lidar (DWL). The data were collected as part of a field experiment in Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province (China), which was conducted by Shanghai Typhoon Institute of China Meteorological Administration during the passage of Super Typhoon Lekima (2019). The DWL measurements were compared with balloon-borne GPS radiosonde (GPS sonde) data, which were acquired using balloons launched from the DWL location. Results showed that wind speed measured by GPS sonde at heights of<100 m is unreliable owing to the drift effect. Optimal agreement (at heights of>100 m) was found for DWL-measured wind speed time-averaged during the ascent of the GPS sonde from the ground surface to the height of 270 m (correlation coefficient: 0.82; root mean square (RMS): 2.19 m·s⁻¹). Analysis revealed that precipitation intensity (PI) exerts considerable influence on both the carrier-to-noise ratio and the rate of missing DWL data; however, PI has minimal effect on the wind speed bias of DWL measurements. Specifically, the rate of missing DWL data increased with increasing measurement height and PI. For PI classed as heavy rain or less (PI<12 mm·h⁻¹), the DWL data below 300 m were considered valid, whereas for PI classed as a severe rainstorm (PI>90 mm·h⁻¹), only data below 100 m were valid. Up to the height of 300 m, the RMS of the DWL measurements was nearly half that of wind profile radar (WPR) estimates (4.32 m·s⁻¹), indicating that DWL wind data are more accurate than WPR data under typhoon conditions.

Keywords

Lidar / WindCube / GPS sonde / Super Typhoon Lekima / precipitation

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2018YFB1501104), Key Program for International S&T Cooperation Projects of China (No. 2017YFE0107700), National Natural Science Foundation of China ( Grant No. 41805088), and Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (No. 18ZR1449100). We are grateful to Rong Zhu, Peter Dodge and an anonymous reviewer for their constructive comments on the original version of the submitted manuscript. We also thank James Buxton MSc from Liwen Bianji, Edanz Group China, for editing the English text of this manuscript.

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