Towards a better understanding of Atmospheric stability for Wind-Energy Applications with the MiRadOr Project

We present the Microwave Radiometer for the Detection and Assessment of Offshore Wind Resources (MiRadOr) project, a year-long offshore measurement campaign designed to evaluate how microwave radiometer (MWR) technologies can improve the assessment of offshore wind resources. MiRadOr evaluates vertical profiles of temperature and humidity and compares them with traditional radiosonde and meteorological mast observations, as well as output from numerical weather prediction (NWP) and climate models.

The overarching goal of MiRadOr is to better characterize the dynamics of the lowest levels of the atmosphere in the context of wind energy. We will evaluate the quality and reliability of MWR observations for assessing atmospheric stability- a key metric for wind energy applications.

In November 2025, the MiRadOr project completed a week-long measurement campaign with an intensive radiosondes program, LiDAR measurements, and a 200m-tall met mast in Northern Germany. MiRadOr’s one-year measurements with MWRs and LiDARs are carried out in the Netherlands. Our main intensive observation period in the Netherlands will take place in March 2026 and will include data collection with several MWRs, LiDAR, and a radiosonde program.

Moreover, we evaluate simulated atmospheric stability from reanalysis and weather prediction models with measurements. Ground truth is provided by LiDAR, MWR, and meteorological mast observations from the 2025-2026 MiRadOr campaigns, paired with previously existing measurement data, e.g., from the 2021 FESSTVaL campaign and the Tall Tower Dataset. We assess the performance of atmospheric models against the observations concerning metrics relevant to wind energy.