High‐resolution wind speed measurements using actively heated fiber optics
Abstract
We present a novel technique to simultaneously measure wind speed (U) at thousands of locations continuously in time based on measurement of velocity‐dependent heat transfer from a heated surface. Measuring temperature differences between paired passive and actively heated fiber‐optic (AHFO) cables with a distributed temperature sensing system allowed estimation of U at over 2000 sections along the 230 m transect (resolution of 0.375 m and 5.5 s). The underlying concept is similar to that of a hot wire anemometer extended in space. The correlation coefficient between U measured by two colocated sonic anemometers and the AHFO were 0.91 during the day and 0.87 at night. The combination of classical passive and novel AHFO provides unprecedented dynamic observations of both air temperature and wind speed spanning 4 orders of magnitude in spatial scale (0.1–1000 m) while resolving individual turbulent motions, opening new opportunities for testing basic theories for near‐surface geophysical flows.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Nov 23, 2015
- Source ID
- 10.1002/2015gl066729
Entities
People
- Chadi Sayde
- Christoph Thomas
- James Wagner
- John S. Selker
Organizations
- Army Research Office
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- National Science Foundation
- Oregon State University
- University of Bayreuth