GROUND-BASED REMOTE SENSING SYSTEMS - Wind Resource Assessment: A Practical Guide to Developing a Wind Project - page 105

Scattering volume

Echo

Acoustic pulse

Sodar unit

Figure 8-1. Illustration of sodar operation; the sodar unit emits an acoustic pulse and subse-
quently measures the frequency and time delay of the backscattered signal to determine the
wind speed and height. Source: AWS Truepower.

(a) (b)

Figure 8-2. (a) Scintec SFAS sodar unit. (b) Atmospheric Research & Technology VT-1 sodar
unit enclosed within a trailer. Source: AWS Truepower.

is needed. Sodar units (like lidar units) consume more power than most monitoring
towers.
Sodar systems can require more complicated data-quality screening and analysis
procedures than meteorological masts typically do. There are more parameters to
check, differing system responses to atmospheric events (e.g. rain, snow, and other