Investigation of Coastal Winds and Turbulence Characteristics Using Doppler Lidar.

Sea ports play a major role in the transport of goods worldwide, and knowledge of wind characteristics in these areas is vital to maintaining safety. However, coastal wind flow can be highly complex and turbulent, necessitating additional analysis. A Doppler lidar providing continuous wind profiles is deployed in the Port of Genoa, Italy, to characterize the mean wind velocity and turbulence properties within the coastal surface layer (40–250 m above ground level). Weather conditions, reanalysis data, and transient wind profiles are combined to analyze wind field characteristics on a day which experienced a thunderstorm. We also utilize a method to identify and categorize sources of turbulence through analysis of lidar derived quantities such as wind shear, turbulent kinetic energy, and vertical skewness. Seasonal variations in the wind properties are investigated by selecting data from June (summer) and December (winter). Differences are found in dominant wind direction and the associated frequency of convective mixing, with onshore winds most common in summer and offshore winds in winter. The measured lidar velocity is also compared against Monin–Obukhov similarity theory predictions, showing satisfactory agreement at low heights but struggling to reproduce observations of the stable atmospheric conditions present during winter. Plain Language Summary: Approximately 40% of the world's population lives in the coastal regions. Similarly, seaports host about 80% of the global maritime transport and therefore play a major role in the transportation of goods and services. However, coastal regions and ports are also windy places due in part to strong temperature differences between land and sea. This study uses a remote sensing instrument—Doppler lidar—to measure mean wind velocity and turbulence characteristics in the Port of Genoa, Italy, between 40 and 250 m above the ground. The study first provides a detailed investigation of a case (7 June 2020) that was characterized by variable weather that included rain, thunderstorms, and intermittent sunshine. Seasonal variations in the wind characteristics above the Port of Genoa are investigated by focusing on June (summer) and December (winter) months. Winds that blow from sea to land are most common in summer whereas the winds that blow from land to sea are dominant in winter. The wind measurements are compared against theoretical predictions that are often employed in numerical weather prediction models. A varying degree of similarity between the measured and predicted values is found. Key Points: Analyses of wind variability during a thunderstorm and seasonal wind patterns using Doppler lidar measurements in the Port of Genoa, ItalyClassification of turbulent sources using lidar‐derived quantities and comparison of wind profiles against theoretical predictionsSeasonal analysis of surface heating induced convective‐mixing sources and their frequency [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]