The Perdigão: Peering into Microscale Details of Mountain Winds

AbstractA grand challenge from the wind energy industry is to provide reliable forecasts on mountain winds several hours in advance at microscale (∼100m) resolution. This requires better microscale wind energy physics included in forecasting tools, for which field observations are imperative. While mesoscale (∼ 1 km) measurements abound, microscale processes are not monitored in practice nor do plentiful measurements exist at this scale. After a decade of preparation, a group of European and US collaborators conducted a field campaign during May 01 – June 15, 2017 in Vale Cobrao in central Portugal to delve into microscale processes in complex terrain. This valley is nestled within a parallel double ridge near the town of Perdigao with dominant wind climatology normal to the ridges, offering a nominally simple yet natural setting for fundamental studies. The dense instrument ensemble deployed covered a ∼ 4 x 4 km swath horizontally and ∼ 10 km kilometers vertically, with measurement resolutions of tens of...