Acoustic tomography in the atmospheric surface layer

International audienceAcoustic tomography is presented as a technique for remote monitoring of meteorological quantities. This method and a special algorithm of analysis can directly produce area-averaged values of meteorological parameters. As a result consistent data will be obtained for validation of numerical atmospheric micro-scale models. Such a measuring system can complement conventional point measurements over different surfaces. The procedure of acoustic tomography uses the horizontal propagation of sound waves in the atmospheric surface layer. Therefore, to provide a general overview of sound propagation under various atmospheric conditions a two-dimensional ray-tracing model according to a modified version of Snell's law is used. The state of the crossed atmosphere can be estimated from measurements of acoustic travel time between sources and receivers at different points. Derivation of area-averaged values of the sound speed and furthermore of air temperature results from the inversion of travel time values for all acoustic paths. Thereby, the applied straight ray two-dimensional tomographic model using SIRT (simultaneous iterative reconstruction technique) is characterised as a method with small computational requirements, satisfactory convergence and stability properties as well as simple handling, especially, during online evaluation

A texture component crystal plasticity finite element method for scalable anisotropy simulations

This progress report introduces a crystal plasticity finite element method which includes and updates the texture of polycrystalline matter for physically based simulations of large strain forming operations. The approach works by directly mapping a set of discrete texture components into a crystal plasticity finite element method. The method is well suited for industrial applications since it is formulated on the basis of existing commercial software solutions. The study gives an overview of the new texture component crystal plasticity finite element method and presents examples

Comparison of wind measurements between a Mini-SODAR PA0, a METEK-SODAR and a 99 m tower

Doppler-SODAR measurements are commonly used to derive the vertical wind profile. One main advantage of the Mini-SODAR (from the company Remtech) is its small size and weight and therefore it is easy to handle and set up in short time. Two long-term measurements were operated in September and October 2009. A statistical comparison was made between the Mini-SODAR, the tower and the DWD-SODAR (from the company METEK) for the two measurement periods. It is presented here that the Mini-SODAR overestimates the tower measurements and also the measurements of the DWD-SODAR. It is also shown, that the Mini-SODAR is able to determine the mean flow conditions in the lower boundary layer (up to 200 m)