Study of spatial characteristics of near-coastal wind fields using UAV technology

Due to the problems of complex structure, high cost, and limited measurement range of traditional wind field measurement instruments, this paper used a combination of a modified anemometer and a multi-rotor UAV to make realistic measurements of the spatial wind field in near-shore waters. The feasibility of the equipment in the measurement is also demonstrated. To solve the problem that conventional instruments cannot acquire wind field data from multiple measurement points simultaneously, the paper introduces the dimensionless method and demonstrates the feasibility of the method through multiple perspectives. The measured data were noise-reduced and dimensionless processed to obtain the relationships between the dimensionless parameters between measurement points. The comparison analysis was carried out from different heights and directions to investigate the variation of the parameters in each plane and at each measurement point, and it was concluded that the wind field characteristics in a limited range can be inferred from a point within the height in the near-shore area. This conclusion offers the possibility of using a few measurement points to estimate and predict the wind field characteristics in nearshore waters. •Combining a new wind field measurement tool.•Prove the feasibility of experimental equipment by comparison.•The dimensionless method is introduced to eliminate the temporal errors in data acquisition from multiple measurement points.•The feasibility of the dimensionless method is demonstrated by the idea of hypothesis testing and is used to show planar fluctuations.