Abstract. This study evaluates the impact of an enhanced sampling rate on turbulence measurements using the Vaisala WindCube v2.1 lidar profiler. A prototype configuration, sampling 4 times faster than the commercial setup, was compared to the commercial WindCube v2.1, with reference measurements provided by a 2D sonic anemometer mounted on a measurement mast. Over the 47 d experiment, the prototype configuration showed performance similar to the commercial setup for key performance indicators (KPIs) like slope and the coefficient of determination of mean wind speed compared to reference measurements, with both configurations meeting the “best-practice” threshold. However, for mean wind speed differences, the commercial configuration met the best-practice level, while the prototype met the “minimum-acceptance” criterion. Additionally, the data availability of the prototype configuration was 0.5 % lower than that of the commercial configuration. Moreover, the increased sampling rate of the prototype lidar resulted in higher mean variance in instrumental noise compared to that of the commercial configuration. Despite this limitation, the mean noise-corrected along-wind variance measured by the prototype lidar was approximately 7 % higher than that of the commercial lidar. This effect was especially evident at higher wind speeds. Error metrics for the noise-corrected along-wind standard deviation in the prototype lidar were approximately 25 % lower than those of the commercial configuration. However, the observed improvements to the prototype configuration in measuring turbulence fell short of expectations due to inherent limitations in the measurement process within the probe, where spatial and temporal filtering effects constrain the detection of turbulence at certain scales.
Thiébaut et al. (Mon,) studied this question.