The Nature of the Ny-Ålesund Wind Field Analysed by High-Resolution Windlidar Data

• Published in: Remote Sensing
• Main Authors: Sandra Graßl, Christoph Ritter, Alexander Schulz
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2022
• Subjects: windlidar; wind field; wind channelling; jets; Ny-Ålesund; Svalbard; Science; Q; Arctic; Ny Ålesund
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14153771; https://doaj.org/article/31bb780b82b54d2989d13224f6f36787

In this work we present windlidar data for the research village Ny-Ålesund located on Svalbard in the European Arctic ( <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>78.923</mn><mo>°</mo></mrow></semantics></math> N, <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>11.928</mn><mo>°</mo></mrow></semantics></math> E) from 2013 to 2021. The data have a resolution of 50 m and 10 min with an overlapping height of about 150 m. The maximum range depends on the meteorologic situation. Up to 1000 m altitude the data availability is better than <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>71</mn><mo>%</mo></mrow></semantics></math> . We found that the highest wind speeds occur in November and December, the lowest ones in June and July, up to 500 m altitude the wind is channelled strongly in ESE to NW direction parallel to the fjord axis and the synoptic conditions above 1000 m altitude already dominate. While the fraction of windy days ( <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>v</mi><mo>></mo><mn>10</mn><mspace width="3.33333pt"></mspace><mfrac><mi mathvariant="normal">m</mi><mi mathvariant="normal">s</mi></mfrac></mrow></semantics></math> ) varies significantly from month to month, there is no overall trend of the wind visible in our data set. We define gusts and jets by the requirement of wind maxima <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>v</mi><mo>></mo><mn>2</mn><mspace width="3.33333pt"></mspace><mfrac><mi ...