Brief communication: Nowcasting of precipitation for leading-edge-erosion-safe mode

Leading-edge erosion (LEE) of wind turbine blades iscaused by the impact of hydrometeors, which appear in a solid or liquid phase.A reduction in the wind turbine blades' tip speed during definedprecipitation events can mitigate LEE. To apply such an erosion-safe mode, aprecipitation nowcast is required. Theoretical considerations indicate thatthe time a raindrop needs to fall to the ground is sufficient to reduce thetip speed. Furthermore, it is described that a compact, vertically pointingradar that measures rain at different heights with a sufficiently highspatio-temporal resolution can nowcast rain for an erosion-safe mode.