Effect of Wind Field Deformation on the Wind Components Retrieval Accuracy from Lidar Measurements

Reconstruction of the vector wind field from the measurements of the Doppler lidar uses the hypothesis of the wind constancy in a certain area. With an increase in the distance to the recovery point, the dimensions of this region must be increased in order to provide the angular resolution of the wind speed transverse component. Since the wind field is spatially inhomogeneous in real conditions, it can significantly deviate from a constant value in a large scan area. This paper presents a theoretical analysis of the effect of wind field deformation on the retrieval accuracy of wind components from measurements. The analysis is performed in the asymptotic approximation for the case of restoring the horizontal wind field. Estimates are obtained for the maximum error in calculating the wind speed components as a function of the measurement error of the radial component, divergence, vorticity, and deformation of the wind vector field.