Scintillometer wind measurements over complex terrain

Several large-aperture scintillometers were built at the Paul Scherrer Inst itute with the aim to measure wind over complex terrain. A prototype instru ment was tested over flat ground, and the performance of six analyzing tech niques was evaluated by comparing them with conventional anemometers. Next, a set of five improved scintillometers was used in an experiment over comp lex terrain. This experiment represents a unique opportunity for evaluating scintillometer performance by comparing their results to sodar, aircraft, and ground station measurements. The results complement and partly contradi ct the observations previously published; the so-called peak technique is t he most reliable and frequency techniques fail to provide faithful results in many cases. The measurements demonstrate that scintillometry is useful a nd reliable for wind and turbulence measurements over complex terrain.