Processing of sonic anemometer measurements for offshore wind turbine applications

Abstract

Quality assured measurements from offshore masts may provide valuable information of the characteristics of the offshore wind field, which is of high relevance for simulations of offshore wind turbines' dynamic response. In order to obtain these high quality data sets, a processing procedure tailored to offshore wind turbine applications must be followed. In this study, existing quality control routines applied in literature are evaluated, and a complete procedure is developed for sonic anemometer measurements. This processing procedure is applied to measurements at three heights from 16 months of measurements at FINO1. The processing procedure results in a data set of more than 6 000 30-minute periods of high quality time series showing a large variety in terms of wind speed and turbulence intensity. Together with an assessment of the stationarity, this processed data set is ready for use in offshore wind turbine research.