Parameter estimation of surface layer turbulence from wind speed vertical profile

The present work presents an iterative method for estimating the characteristic parameters of surface layer turbulence, based exclusively on the knowledge of the roughness length z(0) and of the mean wind speed vertical profile. The method is a 'specialised' version of the well known Gauss-Newton non-linear optimisation method and its extreme simplicity allows the direct use of the latter in a real-time data acquisition system of limited potential. Comparison of the estimates derived from the proposed method with those obtained using the gradient method shows an excellent agreement between the two methods. In addition, numerical analysis has revealed excellent characteristics of speed and convergence. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.