Weibull Wind-Speed Distribution Parameters Derived from a Combination of Wind-Lidar and Tall-Mast Measurements Over Land, Coastal and Marine Sites

Wind-speed observations from tall towers are used in combination with observations up to 600 m in altitude from a Doppler wind lidar to study the long-term conditions over suburban (Hamburg), rural coastal (Høvsøre) and marine (FINO3) sites. The variability in the wind field among the sites is expressed in terms of mean wind speed and Weibull distribution shape-parameter profiles. The consequences of the carrier-to-noise-ratio ( CNR ) threshold-value choice on the wind-lidar observations are revealed as follows. When the wind-lidar CNR is lower than a prescribed threshold value, the observations are often filtered out as the uncertainty in the wind-speed measurements increases. For a pulsed heterodyne Doppler lidar, use of the traditional –22 dB CNR threshold value at all measuring levels up to 600 m results in a ≈ 7