Characteristic Wind Speed Distributions and Reliability of the Logarithmic Wind Profile
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 133, Issue 3
Abstract
Wind produces turbulence facilitating the exchange of pollutants and other environmentally important trace gases such as oxygen and greenhouse gases between stationary water bodies and the atmosphere. Whereas wind speeds continuously vary, different wind speed monitoring and characterization procedures have been used for the gas exchange studies. We assessed the impact of measurement time intervals, logarithmic wind speed profiles, and surface roughness values on wind characterizations. The Weibull probability density function effectively characterized yearly and seasonal wind speed distributions. It was not affected by various averaging time intervals . However, averaging time interval of was necessary for reliable characterizations of shorter-periods ( days). Vertical wind speed variations were effectively described by logarithmic profile irrespective of atmospheric stability conditions. Interestingly, use of the logarithmic profile allowed the actual to be predicted with reasonable accuracy for a wide range of surface roughness values. This was true under all stability conditions. Thus, small time intervals and the logarithmic profile appear to be very robust and widely useful techniques.
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Acknowledgments
The writers are indebted to Mr. M. Johnson for the collection, organization, transformation, and analysis of a large volume of data.
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Information
Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 133 • Issue 3 • March 2007
Pages: 313 - 318
Copyright
© 2007 ASCE.
History
Received: Dec 28, 2005
Accepted: Oct 1, 2006
Published online: Mar 1, 2007
Published in print: Mar 2007
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