A novel wind profile formulation for neutral conditions in urban environment

One of the main problems to solve in micrometeorological studies concerns the theoretical evaluation of the wind profile in an urban environment. In such a case, in fact, the classical similarity theory gives in general invalid results. Based on this evidence, observations of wind profiles from ground level up to 200 m were collected inside an urban park located in the city of Rome (Italy), by means of a Doppler SODAR during the years 2005 and 2006. Measurements taken by an ultrasonic anemometer and by a conventional meteorological station located at ground level were also used for the study. A new formulation for the vertical profile of the wind velocity in the case of neutral condition is proposed. The results show that the new formulation, which is based on the concept of roughness length varying with the height, performs better than the classical theoretical law based on a constant value of the roughness length.