Wind sensing with drone mounted wind lidars: proof of concept

Abstract

Abstract. The fusion of drone and wind lidar technology introduces the exciting possibility of performing high-quality wind measurements virtually anywhere for substantially lower costs than established in-situ and remote sensing techniques. In this paper we will present a proof of concept (POC) drone-lidar system and report results from several test campaigns that demonstrate its ability to measure accurate wind speeds. The POC system is based on a dual-telescope Continuous Wave (CW) lidar, with drone-borne telescopes and ground-based opto-electronics. Commercially available drone and gimbal units are employed. The demonstration campaigns started with a series of comparisons of the wind speed measurements acquired by the POC system to simultaneous measurements performed by nearby mast based sensors. Generally very good agreement was found. Subsequently the extent of the flow disturbance caused by the drone downwash was investigated. These tests vindicated the somewhat conservative choice of lidar measurement range made for the initial wind speed comparisons. Overall, the excellent results obtained without any drone motion correction and with fairly primitive drone position control indicate the potential of drone-lidar systems in terms of accuracy and applications. The next steps in the development are outlined in the paper and several potential applications are discussed.