EVALUATION OF MINISODAR PERFORMANCE OPERATING IN HIGH WIND CONDITIONS

The performance of a high resolution tristatic minisodar is evaluated over an area of complex topography using a 30 m high meteorological ma st equipped with cup anemometers and bivanes. The instrumentation was in operation at the Moni Toplou Wind Park (Island of Crete, Greece) an d the comparison covered a range of high wind speed and different mete orological conditions during day and night-time periods. The Sodar mea surements of mean wind speed and direction for 15 min time segments ag reed with the in situ measurements although an underestimation of the wind speed is evident. On the other hand the standard deviations of th e wind speed and direction as estimated by Sodar gave poor agreement w ith the in situ instrumentation.