TY - JOUR
T1 - The Alaiz experiment: Untangling multi-scale stratified flows over complex terrain
AU - Santos, Pedro
AU - Mann, Jakob
AU - Vasiljević, Nikola
AU - Cantero, Elena
AU - Sanz Rodrigo, Javier
AU - Borbón, Fernando
AU - Martínez-Villagrasa, Daniel
AU - Martí, Belén
AU - Cuxart, Joan
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - We present novel measurements from a field campaign that aims to characterize multi-scale flow
patterns, ranging from 0.1 to 10 km in a time-resolved manner, in a mountainous region in northwestern Spain
with a mountain–valley–ridge configuration. We select two flow cases where topographic-flow interactions were
measured by five synchronized scanning Doppler wind lidars along a 10 km transect line that includes a cross
section of the valley. We observed a hydraulic jump in the lee side of the mountain. For this case, the Froude
number transition from supercritical (> 1) at the mountain to subcritical (< 1) at the valley is in agreement with
previous experiments at a smaller scale. For a 1-year period, the measurements show such a transition about 10 %
of the time, indicating a possible high occurrence of hydraulic jumps. The second flow case presents valley winds
that are decoupled from the northerly flow aloft and show a stratified layered pattern, which is well captured by
the lidar scans and complementary ground-based observations. These measurements can aid the evaluation of
multi-scale numerical models as well as improve our knowledge with regards to mountain meteorology.
AB - We present novel measurements from a field campaign that aims to characterize multi-scale flow
patterns, ranging from 0.1 to 10 km in a time-resolved manner, in a mountainous region in northwestern Spain
with a mountain–valley–ridge configuration. We select two flow cases where topographic-flow interactions were
measured by five synchronized scanning Doppler wind lidars along a 10 km transect line that includes a cross
section of the valley. We observed a hydraulic jump in the lee side of the mountain. For this case, the Froude
number transition from supercritical (> 1) at the mountain to subcritical (< 1) at the valley is in agreement with
previous experiments at a smaller scale. For a 1-year period, the measurements show such a transition about 10 %
of the time, indicating a possible high occurrence of hydraulic jumps. The second flow case presents valley winds
that are decoupled from the northerly flow aloft and show a stratified layered pattern, which is well captured by
the lidar scans and complementary ground-based observations. These measurements can aid the evaluation of
multi-scale numerical models as well as improve our knowledge with regards to mountain meteorology.
U2 - 10.5194/wes-5-1793-2020
DO - 10.5194/wes-5-1793-2020
M3 - Journal article
SN - 2366-7443
VL - 5
SP - 1793
EP - 1810
JO - Wind Energy Science
JF - Wind Energy Science
IS - 4
ER -