A Simple Recipe for Estimating Atmospheric Stability Solely Based on Surface-Layer Wind Speed Profile

TL;DR

This paper introduces a straightforward method to estimate atmospheric stability using only wind speed measurements at three levels, eliminating the need for temperature gradient data, thus benefiting wind energy applications.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel, simple approach to estimate atmospheric stability solely from wind speed profiles, suitable for lidar and sodar measurements.

Findings

Effective stability estimation from wind speed data

Applicable to high-resolution surface-layer measurements

Reduces reliance on temperature gradient data

Abstract

The wind energy community is gradually recognizing the significance of atmospheric stability in both power production and structural loading. However, estimating stability requires temperature gradient data which are not commonly measured by the wind farm developers or operators. To circumvent this problem, we propose a simple approach \emph{\'{a} la} Swinbank, to estimate stability from only three levels of wind speed measurements. As such, this approach is ideally suited for sodar and lidar--based wind measurements owing to their high vertical resolution in the surface layer.