Development of Wind Profiling Sodar

Abstract

The present study group has developed a new wind profiling sodar with a phased array antenna. This system is superior to usual ones with parabolic reflectors in its portability. Preliminary experiments have shown the expected acoustic performance by theoretical estimations. A new simplified homodyne complex covariance method has been introduced and tested to estimate the Doppler frequency shifts. Doppler wind measurement based on the five-beam system was used to get free from acoustic refraction effect and contamination of vertical component on the horizontal wind estimates. The test observations were successful but the data are too small in number at this stage to discuss the instrumentation error or the error due to inhomogeneity.