page_title: Sodar
section_title: Doppler sodar
hierarchical_section_title: Sodar / Doppler sodar
caption_attribution_description: English: Sodar system from AQSystem
context_page_description: Sodar, or in full sonic detection and ranging, is a meteorological instrument used as a wind profiler to measure the scattering of sound waves by atmospheric turbulence. SODAR systems are used to measure wind speed at various heights above the ground, and the thermodynamic structure of the lower layer of the atmosphere.
  Sodar systems are in fact nothing more than sonar systems used in the air rather than in water; more specifically, since they operate using the Doppler effect with a multi-beam configuration to determine wind speed, they are the exact in-air equivalent to a subclass of sonar systems known as acoustic Doppler current profilers. Other names used for sodar systems include sounder, echosounder and acoustic radar.
context_section_description: Commercial sodars operated to collect upper-air wind measurements consist of antennas that transmit and receive acoustic signals. A mono-static system uses the same antenna for transmitting and receiving, while a bi-static system uses separate antennas. The difference between the two antenna systems determines whether atmospheric scattering is by temperature fluctuations (in mono-static systems), or by both temperature and wind velocity fluctuations (in bi-static systems).
  Mono-static antenna systems can be divided into two categories: those using multiple axis individual antennas, and those using a single phased array antenna. The multiple-axis systems generally use three individual antennas aimed in specific directions to steer the acoustic beam. Using three independent (i.e. non-collinear) axes is enough to retrieve the three components of the wind speed, although using more axes would add redundancy and increase robustness to noise when estimating the wind speed, using a least-squares approach. One antenna is generally aimed vertically, and the other two are tilted slightly from the vertical at an orthogonal angle. Each of the individual antennas may use a single transducer focused into a parabolic reflector to form a parabolic loudspeaker, or an array of speaker drivers and horns (transducers) all transmitting in-phase to form a single beam. Both the tilt angle from the vertical and the azimuth angle of each antenna are fixed when the system is set up.
  Phased-array antenna systems use a single array of speaker drivers and horns (transducers), and the beams are electronically steered by phasing the transducers appropriately. To set up a phased-array antenna, the pointing direction of the array is either level or oriented as specified by the manufacturer.
  The horizontal components of the wind velocity are calculated from the radially measured Doppler shifts and the specified tilt angle from the vertical. The tilt angle, or zenith angle, is generally 15 to 30 degrees, and the horizontal beams are typically oriented at right angles to one another. Since the Doppler shift of the radial components along the tilted beams includes the influence of both the horizontal and vertical components of the wind, a correction for the vertical velocity is needed in systems with zenith angles less than 20 degrees. Also, if the system is located in a region where vertical velocities may be greater than about 0.2 m/s, corrections for the vertical velocity are needed, regardless of the beam's zenith angle.
  The vertical range of sodars is approximately 0.2 to 2 kilometers (km) and is a function of frequency, power output, atmospheric stability, turbulence, and, most importantly, the noise environment in which a sodar is operated. Operating frequencies range from less than 1000 Hz to over 4000 Hz, with power levels up to several hundred watts. Due to the attenuation characteristics of the atmosphere, high power, lower frequency sodars will generally produce greater height coverage. Some sodars can be operated in different modes to better match vertical resolution and range to the application. This is accomplished through a relaxation between pulse length and maximum altitude.
caption: AQ500 SoDAR used in wind energy development and wind condition monitoring.
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