Wind Event Warning System

sensors
Wind Event Warning System (LAR-TOPS-229)
High-energy Doppler LIDAR to protect wind turbines and aircraft from severe wind events
Overview
NASA Langley Research Center has developed a wind event warning technology providing a practical early warning system (5-10 minutes) for a severe change in the wind vector. Events such as gusts, shear, microbursts or thunderstorm outflows can be detected in time to prevent damage to wind turbines or help airports prevent damage to aircraft. Further, an alternative power source could be ramped up or down as needed to accommodate the power draw in the electrical grid.

The Technology
The Wind Event Warning System (WEWS) is high-energy Doppler LIDAR sensor that measures approaching changes of wind such as an oncoming variation of wind speed that will change the power output of a wind farm. Different from low-energy, the high-energy Doppler LIDAR has the energy to reach the long distances necessary to provide adequate warning time of a wind event. With the time provided by WEWS, the blades of a wind turbine could be feathered to prevent strong wind from damaging the turbine. In addition, airports could use WEWS to protect aircraft from sudden wind hazards.
Gust detection of more than 10-minute warning time is shown here from a prototype high-energy lidar.  A mild gust of 5-m/s speed is imbedded in background wind of 2-m/s.  A severe wind event would produce an even more pronounced signal. Image Credit: NASA/ Grady Koch
Benefits
  • Provides sufficient warning time for action to protect wind turbines
  • Allows time to ramp up or down an alternative power source
  • Has the capability for long-range wind measurements in clear air, critical for airports

Applications
  • Off-shore Wind Energy Applications
  • Airport long-range wind event monitoring and detection
Technology Details

sensors
LAR-TOPS-229
LAR-18661-1
10,067,235
Similar Results
Low Frequency Portable Acoustic Measurement System
Low Frequency Portable Acoustic Measurement System
Langley has developed various technologies to enable the portable detection system, including: - 3-inch electret condenser microphone - unprecedented sensitivity of -45 dB/Hz - compact nonporous windscreen - suitable for replacing spatially demanding soaker hoses in current use - infrasonic calibrator for field use - piston phone with a test signal of 110 dB at 14Hz. - laboratory calibration apparatus - to very low frequencies - vacuum isolation vessel - sufficiently anechoic to permit measurement of background noise in microphones at frequencies down to a few Hz - mobile source for reference - a Helmholtz resonator that provides pure tone at 19 Hz The NASA system uses a three-element array in the field to locate sources of infrasound and their direction. This information has been correlated with PIREPs available in real time via the Internet, with 10 examples of good correlation.
Vortex Radiometer for Wireless Communications
The Vortex Radiometer (VR) creates concentric, annular antenna beam patterns that measure sky-noise temperature. Annular antenna patterns are created by imparting orbital angular momentum into the electric field received by the antenna using spiral phase plates placed in front of the antenna aperture, generating multiple radiometer channels. Data points are then collected by plotting the measured noise temperature of each radiometer channel as a function of time. Noise temperature increases as a noise source (e.g., weather-related noise, signal interference, etc.) traverses the antenna beam patterns. An algorithm is then used to correlate noise temperature peaks in adjacent beams and to determine when a fade will occur, how long the fade will last, and how intense the fade will be. With this information, effective and efficient strategies can be implemented using cognitive communication and antenna systems to autonomously select the optimum fade-mitigation technique and parameter (e.g., increasing the transmission power, adjusting the modulation and/or coding scheme, etc.). NASA's VR system has been prototyped, including the radiometer device and the algorithm for characterizing noise sources based on VR data. Simulations have shown that a VR system can instruct an existing cognitive antenna to switch between Ka- and X-Band communications in order to avert interference from small diameter noise sources. Any high-performance communication systems operating in RF or optical frequencies may benefit from NASA's VR capabilities.
Atmospheric sound
High Altitude UAV for Monitoring Meteorological Parameters
Radiosondes are launched twice a day from different locations of the world and meteorological data is collected to plot the STUV diagram and determining CAPE (Cumulative Average Potential Energy) values. Radiosondes are not re-usable and used only at pre-determined locations around the globe. Moreover, a radiosonde can drift up to 125 miles from its release point. About 75,000 radiosondes are used every year. Given this unmet need, an inventor at NASA has developed an advanced airborne meteorological system which can provide meteorological parameters at any location at any desired time. In additional to routinely used meteorological sensors, an infrasonic sensor is also included to determine wind shear at local and regional levels. The airborne system may also be used in towns and cities to track drones and UAVs in the area. The airborne vehicle (UAV or drone) should be able to track seismic waves, magnetic storms, magneto-hydrodynamic waves, tornadoes, meteor, and lightning, etc. This technology can be use to measure environmental turbulence including wind shear, vortices as well as large and small eddies is an important factor in forecasting local and regional weather. It can also detect infrasound at ranges of many miles from the source and the shape of the acoustic power spectrum can be used to identify type of turbulence in the atmosphere.
Spain
Using the Power Grid for Geophysical Imaging
This technology utilizes the U.S. high-voltage power transmission grid system as an extremely large antenna to extract unprecedented spatiotemporal space physical and geological information from distributed GIC observations. GICs are measured using differential a magnetometer technique involving one fluxgate magnetometer under the transmission line and another reference magnetometer station nearby. The reference station allows subtraction of the natural field from the line measurement, leaving only the GIC-related Biot-Savart field. This allows inversion of the GIC amplitude. The magnetometer stations are designed to operate autonomously. They are low-cost, enabling large scale application with a large number of measurement locations.
power lines
Directional UAV Localization of Power Line Ultraviolet Corona
This technology comprises a novel system of detecting, inspecting and analyzing a corona discharge using an ultra-violet camera. It is useful for a number of potential applications, most notably, power line fault detection. The most novel feature is that it uses UV instead of IR which has been problematical for corona discharge detection because there is too much interference from other sources. UV detection offers images that isolate the location of the corona discharge with far greater precision.
Stay up to date, follow NASA's Technology Transfer Program on:
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
Facebook Logo Twitter Logo Linkedin Logo Youtube Logo