Synchronized agile beam scanning of coherent continuous-wave doppler lidars for high-resolution wind field characterization

Developments of coherent continuous-wave lidar technologies for detailed studies of the three components of wind fields in the three-dimensional space has been pursued at DTU Wind Energy during the last decade with a concept called WindScanner. Since a single lidar only measures the wind component along the laser beam, the concept builds on synchronized agile beam-scanning of several lidars. The technological developments including synchronized double-prism-based scanning and an all-fiber in-phase and quadrature direction detection scheme are described. Several different instrument implementations have been realized and application examples from wind energy, structural design, aviation, boundary-layer meteorology, and recently also forestry and detailed studies in wind tunnels are highlighted. The wind lidar developments has not only proven to provide useful remote-sensing tools for wind field characterization at high spatial and temporal resolution but also holds prospects as tools for calibrating traditional point-monitoring anemometric devices which currently is investigated.