Work

Low-Level Wind Shear Characteristics in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau by Long-Term Wind Lidar Observations and the Improved Algorithm

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: The complex terrain of the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau (QTP) makes low-level wind shear (LLWS) detection challenging. Using May–September 2023 high-resolution Doppler Wind Lidar (DWL) observations, this study analyzed the spatiotemporal characteristics of LLWS and proposed an optimized detection algorithm. A key novelty of this work lies in the development of a hybrid physical–statistical detection scheme that combines horizontal divergence with logistic regression to dynamically modulate the shear field. This approach effectively reduces noise-induced false alarms in complex plateau terrain. The results show that LLWS occurred mainly near the surface at night in June, while in September it appeared more frequently during daytime throughout the boundary layer. Horizontally, the dominant directions of LLWS shifted seasonally from northwest and west in June to south and east in September. The proposed optimization method effectively suppressed false alarms, reducing moderate and strong LLWS frequencies by 30–40%. In June, optimization significantly reduced spurious detections of LLWS in the northeast and southwest. The frequency of LLWS in the northeast direction was reduced by up to 0.03. In September, scattered shear was removed and strong shear became more organized in the southeast, while southwest shear frequency decreased by up to 0.04, confirming LLWS patterns and method effectiveness.

Source: Atmosphere

DOI: 10.3390/atmos17010006