In a presentation during the 3rd Annual La Jolla Research & Innovation Summit this week, Norman said that the amount of digital data generated just by instruments such as DNA sequencers, cameras, telescopes, and MRIs is now doubling every 18 months.

“Digital data is advancing at least as fast, and probably faster, than Moore’s Law,” said Norman, referring to the computing hardware belief that the number of transistors which can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every 18 months. “But I/O (input/output) transfer rates are not keeping pace – that is what SDSC’s supercomputers are designed to solve.”

SDSC, a key resource for UCSD researchers as well as the UC system and nationally, will later this year deploy a new data-intensive supercomputer system named Gordon, which will be the first high-performance supercomputer to use large amounts of flash-based SSD (solid state drive) memory. Flash memory is more common in smaller devices such as mobile phones and laptop computers, but unique for supercomputers, which generally use slower spinning disk technology.

The result of a five-year, $20 million grant from the National Science Foundation, Gordon will have 250 trillion bytes of flash memory and 64 I/O nodes, and be capable of handling massive data bases while providing up to 100 times faster speeds when compared to hard drive disk systems for some queries.

“We are re-engineering the entire data infrastructure in SDSC to support the capabilities offered by Gordon,” Norman said.

This makes Gordon ideal for data mining and data exploration, where researchers have to churn through tremendous amounts of data just to find a small amount of valuable information, not unlike a web search.

“Gordon is a supercomputer that will do for scientific data analysis what Google does for web search,” Norman told the summit, adding that SDSC likes to call the new system “the largest thumbdrive in the world.”

SDSC researchers are already doing preliminary tests on several potential applications using 16 I/O nodes of the Gordon system now in operation. Such data mining applications include ‘de novo,’ or ‘from the beginning’ genome assembly from sequencer reads, or classification of objects found in massive astronomical surveys.

“The future of personalized genomic medicine will require technologies like those prototyped in Gordon,” Norman said.

The new supercomputer also is expected to aid researchers in conducting interaction network analysis for new drug discovery. Other data-intensive computational science that will benefit from Gordon’s unique configuration include the solution of inverse problems – or converting observed measurements into information about a physical object or system – in oceanography, atmospheric science, and oil exploration, as well as using the system’s large shared memory system to research modestly scalable codes in quantum chemistry, structural engineering, and computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) applications.

Earlier this year, SDSC deployed a new high-performance computer called Trestles, the result of a $2.8 million award from the NSF. Trestles is appropriately named because it will serve as a bridge between SDSC’s unique, data-intensive resources available to a wide community of users both now and into the future.

“These new systems were designed with one goal in mind, and that is to enable as much productive science as possible as we enter a data-intensive era of computing,” said Norman.

The annual La Jolla Research & Innovation Summit is organized by CONNECT, a San Diego-based group that links inventors and entrepreneurs with resources needed for commercialization by promoting collaborations between industry, venture capital sources, and research organizations including academic institutions such as UCSD.

Source: UC San Diego

Next-generation soap!

Waterborne disease kills three children every minute. This handheld device, called Kopper – which costs only $A2.50 to make – could prevent some of these deaths.

Designed by Balin Lee, a graduate of the University of Western Sydney, it removes 99.99 per cent of all parasites, viruses and bacteria found in contaminated water.

The device works by squeezing water through a microfilter, removing anything larger than 0.1 micrometre, which includes Escherichia coli and Giardia. It then fries anything left with electrolysis, which splits the oxygen and hydrogen molecules, removing tinier pathogens in the water.

Kopper is powered by piezoelectric generators that convert kinetic energy into an electrical current: powering the device requires only a few shakes.

(Image: Balin Lee/SRD Change)

Slum reshaping, breathing buildings and next-generation soap are just some of the ideas on display at the annual SRD Change Exhibition in Sydney, Australia. The show flaunts the best in sustainable and environmental design aiming "to create products and services that focus on tangible and positive benefits for society in every possible aspect", says Greg Campbell, the SRD Change curator.

Source: NewScientist.com

Spintronics — also known as magnetoelectronics — may replace electronics as the medium of choice for computer memory. The discovery of a mechanism that produces permanent magnets at room temperature, without any external influence, may soon improve the design of spintronic devices. Takumi Ohtsuki from the RIKEN SPring-8 Center, Harima and his colleagues in Japan, made the discovery in a class of material called a dilute ferromagnetic oxide.

A representation of a thin film of Co:TiO2 in which ferromagnetism arises because titanium 3d electrons (green) travel around the material aligning the spin of cobalt atoms (pink) so that they all point in the same direction. The blue and brown spheres correspond to titanium and oxygen atoms, respectively. Credit: 2011 Takumi Ohtsuki

Ferromagnetism is the mechanism responsible for making some materials magnetic without any external influence. In a ferromagnet, the axes about which a majority of the electrons spin are all parallel, but the underlying cause for this alignment is not always clear. A dilute ferromagnetic oxide is an oxide material doped with a small amount of a transition metal, which represents a marriage between magnetic materials and those used in electronics. Crucially, and unlike the ferromagnetic-semiconductors, dilute ferromagnetic oxides remain in a ferromagnetic state at room temperature.

Some materials have ferromagnetic constituents but exhibit no magnetism. However, some ferromagnets consist of substances that, on their own, are nonmagnetic. A full understanding of this enigma is vital for designing efficient spintronic devices and requires determining which electrons, or other type of charge carrier in a material, mediate the ferromagnetism. To resolve this question in dilute ferromagnetic oxides, Ohtsuki and his co-workers examined one commonly used example: cobalt-doped titanium dioxide (Co:TiO2). “Several mechanisms have been suggested for the origin of ferromagnetism in Co:TiO2, but no firm conclusion has been established,” says Ohtsuki.

The researchers used a powerful material characterization technique known as x-ray photoemission spectroscopy. A beam of x-rays, in this case from the SPring-8 synchrotron radiation facility, excited electrons from the sample of Co:TiO2. “The number of excited electrons versus their kinetic energies provided detailed information about the atomic composition and electronic state of the material,” explains Ohtsuki.

Ohtsuki and his team established that ferromagnetism is mediated by the electrons in the third shell—so-called 3d electrons—of the titanium ions (Fig. 1), a mechanism that has never been considered as a possibility by scientists before. The titanium 3d electrons align the spin of the cobalt atoms as they travel through the material.

The team’s discovery enhances the likelihood that dilute ferromagnetic oxides will be used as spintronic devices. “Our results have proven that magnetism and conductivity are correlated in Co:TiO2 thin films,” explains Ohtsuki. “This could make them applicable to magnetic random access memory (MRAM) or spin transistors.”

Source: PhysOrg

This method could pave the way for cheaper next-generation thin-film and flexible electronics. The work, which describes the results for films of several different compositions, appeared on Sunday in the journal Nature Materials.

The thin-film electronics behind today’s flat-panel displays are made of chaotically structured, or amorphous, silicon. But amorphous silicon is reaching its performance limits, and a new class of materials—amorphous oxides— will soon be making its commercial debut. Electrons in amorphous oxides can zoom through the material dozens of times as fast as they do in amorphous silicon, making for faster electronics. And unlike amorphous silicon, oxides carry current the same way in every direction, making them better candidates for bendable electronics like flexible solar arrays and roll-up displays.

To make these thin films, engineers primarily rely on ”sputtering,” in which vaporized material is flung at its target inside a vacuum chamber. This process would potentially be less costly if the material could be applied as a solution instead. But fans of the solution-based method have had to confront some inconvenient physics. Heat must be applied to condense the metal oxide, and the material performs best after it has been heated above 300 °C, which is about 100 degrees too hot for most flexible plastics.

Now Mercouri Kanatazidis, Tobin Marks, Antonio Facchetti, and Myung-Gil Kim of Northwestern University, in Evanston, Ill., think they’ve come up with a fix: replacing the external heat of an oven with the internal heat of a chemical reaction.

Many thin-film metal oxide solutions are made using water and metal-containing salts. When the temperature rises high enough, the oxygen atoms bind with the metal to form a chaotic tangle of metal-oxygen bonds. The team found that if they included a fuel like acetylacetone or urea in the mix, they could raise the internal energy of the mixture. Boosting the temperature to just 200 °C triggered a combustion reaction and enough self-generated heat to anneal metal-oxide films.

One of the team’s biggest challenges was finding a way to deal with structural changes created through the combustion process. The internal heat can create voids in the resulting films. These voids are useful for sensors and catalysts that require a lot of surface area, says team member Facchetti, who is also affiliated with Polyera Corp., in Skokie, Ill. But the gaps are counterproductive for thin-film electronics because they reduce the overlap between the atoms’ electron clouds and thus hinder the ability to transport current. ”One of the major challenges was to make sure we could make a film that is very dense,” Facchetti says. The team ultimately found it could circumvent the void problem by alternately depositing and annealing thin layers to build up the film.

One device made using the technique—an indium oxide transistor—boasted an electron mobility of 6 square centimeters per volt second, roughly 10 times that of thin-film amorphous silicon devices. That’s a heartening figure but one that will have to be backed up with more experiments, says John Wager of Oregon State University, in Corvallis, Ore. ”If the extra energy from combustion-based synthesis really does give you better-performing devices at low temperature, then that’s really nice,” Wager says. (See the feature article by John Wager and Randy Hoffman in the May 2011 issue of IEEE Spectrum for more on amorphous oxide semiconductors.)

One big question that will need to be answered in future work, Wager says, is how stable these devices can be. The threshold voltage needed to turn on thin-film transistors tends to drift with use, and that behavior ”tends to be more problematic at low temperature,” he says. ”If their combustion synthesis leads to more stable transistors, that could be really big.”

Source: spectrum

The Dutch are well known for their ubiquitous bike lanes, to the point where Amsterdam is neck and neck with Copenhagen for the title of most bike-loving capital in Europe. Now, Denmark will have to come up with something big to match the latest plan from the Netherlands - the installation of solar panels in roads, starting with bike lanes.

Talk about the efficient use of space: if you're going to have roads (and hopefully you'll have bike lanes), why not put that space to work producing energy? Called the Solaroad, the project is the brainchild of Dutch research firm TNO. The idea is pretty straightforward: a layer of concrete forms the road itself. A centimeter thick layer of crystalline silicon solar cells is laid on top, and covered by a layer of toughened glass. The energy potential: 50kWh per square meter per year, which can then be used to power street lighting, traffic systems and households.

But it's still an idea in development, which is why TNO, working with the Province of North Holland, the consulting firm Ooms Averhorn Group and the tech firm Intech, is starting with a small-scale pilot program in the town of Krommenie, outside of Amsterdam. Scheduled for installation next year, the first Solaroad will hopefully allow its developers better implement many more throughout the country.

Maybe it'll even make it to the US one day- though in today's political climate, this probably costly project is unlikely to get much support in Congress. Well, we can dream.

Source: TreeHugger

Even people who show a clear treatment response with antidepressant medications continue to experience symptoms like insomnia, sadness and decreased concentration, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found after analyzing data from the largest study on the treatment of depression.

"Widely used antidepressant medications, while working overall, missed these symptoms. If patients have persistent residual symptoms, these individuals have a high probability of incomplete recovery," said Dr. Shawn McClintock, assistant professor of psychiatry and lead author of the analysis available in the April print issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology.

UT Southwestern researchers tracked a wide range of symptoms of depression – including sadness, suicidal thoughts, and changes in sleep patterns, appetite/weight, concentration, outlook and energy/fatigue – at the start of the trial and at the end of the antidepressant treatment course.

Research by Dr. Shawn McClintock, assistant professor of psychiatry at UT Southwestern

Dr. McClintock's research used data from the Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression, or STAR*D study, the largest ever on the treatment of major depressive disorder and considered a benchmark in the field of depression research. The six-year, National Institute of Mental Health-sponsored study initially included more than 4,000 patients with major depressive disorder from clinics across the country. Dr. Madhukar Trivedi, professor of psychiatry at UT Southwestern, was co-principal investigator of STAR*D and an author on this paper that analyzed data.

All responders reported between three to 13 residual depressive symptoms, and 75 percent of participants reported five symptoms or more.

Some of their symptoms included insomnia that occurs in the middle of the night (nearly 79 percent); sadness (nearly 71 percent); and decreased concentration and decision-making skills (nearly 70 percent). Moderately severe midnoctural insomnia was reported in nearly 60 percent of participants – more than twice as frequently as other symptoms.

Thoughts of suicide rarely persisted or emerged during treatment, researchers found.

"Some people fear that antidepressant medication increases thoughts of suicide," Dr. McClintock said. "This provided counterevidence of that."

Researchers in the STAR*D trial found that only 33 percent of people go into remission in the first 12 weeks of treatment with an antidepressant medication known as an SSRI, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. Of the available antidepressant medications, SSRIs are the most commonly prescribed for the treatment of depression.

Individuals on SSRIs often still exhibit symptoms of depression. For one of first times, researchers sought with this analysis in a large sample to identify residual symptoms of the disease and whether these symptoms began before or during treatment.

Dr. McClintock and colleagues looked at data from the 2,876 STAR*D participants who completed the first phase of the trial – treatment with an SSRI for 12 weeks. About 15 percent of those participants, or 428 people, responded to treatment with no remission. Response was defined as a 50 percent decrease in severity of depression. The average age of participants was 40, 73 percent were white, and 66 percent were female.

Each year about 19 million adults in America struggle with depression. People with depression are often at increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, asthma and obesity. Depression cost the U.S. an estimated $83 billion a year.

The next step, Dr. McClintock said, will be to develop more targeted antidepressant therapies to decrease depressive symptoms, and to understand better the association between depression and concentration.

Dr. Trivedi said, "Our findings do suggest that the use of measurement-based care techniques to identify and target residual depressive symptoms is essential to help patients return to normal function and recover from depression in the long term."

###

Other UT Southwestern researchers involved in this paper were Dr. Mustafa Husain, professor of psychiatry, internal medicine, and neurology and neurotherapeutics; Dr. David Morris, assistant professor of psychiatry; and Dr. Diane Warden, associate professor of psychiatry. Dr. A. John Rush, formerly of UT Southwestern Medical Center, now at NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore, is co-principal investigator of STAR*D and an author of this analysis. Researchers from New York State Psychiatric Institute; Columbia University; the University of Pittsburgh; Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard University; and the University of California, Los Angeles also participated.

The study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health.

Source: EurekAlert.org

They hope that in the near future computers will be able to communicate among themselves, recognize threats, and be able to monitor their own health -- just like the cells inside our bodies.

"We want the machines to take a more active part in their own protection," said Bruce McConnell, senior counselor for cyber security at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. "We want to use their brains to protect themselves, but always in the context of the policies of the system administrators and owners."

McConnell is co-author of a new DHS white paper, "Enabling Distributed Security in Cyberspace: Building a Healthy and Resilient Cyber Ecosystem with Automated Collective Action."

No, it's not the dawn of Skynet. But it may be a new way of looking at how computers can be protected, and at the broader questions of privacy versus security. McConnell and others point to a marked increase in cyber-threats from organized crime, terrorists, and nation-states looking for key military, financial and other classified intelligence.

The paper imagines a "healthy ecosystem" of computers that collaborate to fight threats, adapt rapidly, and identify and defeat problems. Right now, computers are not very good at catching things that they haven't seen before, McConnell said. In contrast, the human immune system has evolved to fight intruders that it doesn't recognize. "It says: "This is not me. Maybe I need to send something down there to take a look at it, and maybe quarantine it.'" McConnell said.

McConnell says a first step would be to get computers to recognize and react to threats automatically. "Right now it's manual," he said, meaning that a human manager has to contact another human manager via e-mail to warn of a virus or other threat. Ideally, that notification would be done instantly between machines at different government agencies.

Some experts are already working on this kind of interoperability on a small scale. One of the biggest obstacles in getting computers closer to working by themselves is figuring out a better way to authenticate interactions, according to Ross Hartman, vice president for cyber-security services at Science Applications International Corp (SAIC).

"Computers are limited by their programming," Hartman said. "If it doesn't model the known versus the unknown, they can't tell the self from the other."

Hartman says experts are looking at new models of "nature-inspired defense" as computer threats become a greater security problem for government agencies and a bigger cost to industry.

"The threat is growing," Hartman said. "There are more incidents and they are becoming more sophisticated. The latest buzzword is 'advanced persistent threats.' These are sufficiently advanced methods that are difficult to detect and take a long time to discern."

Hartman said the DHS paper is a positive response to threats that are on the rise, and is provoking discussion among cyber-security experts.

Another hurdle faced by computer experts in designing collaborative systems of either individual devices or networked computers is that of privacy. How much information should be shared in the name of security?

Angelos Stavros is a computer scientist at George Mason University. He says the more that computers share information in order to deter threats, the more individual privacy is reduced.

"Although we want the cell to be curable, we want it to have our private personality that cannot be wiped or automatically checked," Stavros said. "What is an attack? It is often in the eye of the beholder."

Author: Eric Niiler; Source: Discovery News

We all make sure we've got our keys, wallet and phone before we head out the door, but more often than not, we are carrying around things that are better left at home. Some items we carry on a daily basis can be virtually impossible to replace, and others may leave us at risk for identity theft in the event of loss. We checked in with the personal finance experts at LearnVest to find the top 10 things you shouldn't carry in your purse or wallet.

Social Security Card

"You may carry it around thinking you need a back-up source of ID, but these days you don't really need it," says Maria Lin, editor in chief at Learnvest. If your Social Security card gets in the wrong hands, someone could open a credit card, apply for a loan, or even buy a car with the information. It's nine digits, just memorize it.

Your Passport

If you're traveling internationally, of course you can't leave your passport at home, but you can leave it in the hotel safe. When you are abroad, make a photocopy of your passport to have in your wallet for identification along with your driver's license. "If you lose your passport or get mugged in a foreign country, it's such a horrible hassle," says Lin. "You have to go to the embassy, and it's a vacation nightmare." If you're traveling in the U.S., use your driver's license instead. "Your passport is such a primo document for your identity, if someone gets a hold of it, you can really put yourself at risk for identity theft," says Lin.

Passwords/Pass codes

Although most PIN numbers are only four digits long, some people still write them down so they don't forget. "If you store any type of ATM password or even a code for your home alarm in your wallet, you have basically gifted a thief with access to your life," says Lin. If you absolutely can't remember important pass codes, store them digitally on a password-protected phone, but never write them down and leave them in your wallet or purse

A Non-Password Protected Phone

Today, many people have smart phones that allow them instant access to bank accounts, PayPal accounts, medical records, and more. Even if your phone only accesses e-mail, a thief could easily search for banking or ATM passwords or addresses, according to Lin. "Think about all the things you have digitally stored on your phone. You have to have it behind password protection. This way a thief can still erase your phone's memory and use it for themselves, but they won't have access to your data."

Your Checkbook

"As innocuous as it seems, your checkbook has your bank account number and routing number on it, your address, and possibly imprints of your signature," says Lin. Lin says that if you know you're going to need to write a check one day, peel off one check out of your book and take it with you. If you know you're going to need to write multiple checks in one day, go ahead and take your checkbook, but don't get into the habit of carrying it around with you all the time, Lin says. "You want to prevent someone's ability to just start writing out your blank checks and cashing them."

Too Many Credit Cards

"A lot of people put all their cards in their wallet and carry them with them at all times," says Lin. "But if your wallet gets lost or stolen, that means you're going to have to sit and cancel every single one, and wait a week without any credit cards before you receive a replacement." Only carry the one or two cards you use on a daily basis and a backup, and leave others at home. Also make sure you keep photocopies of the front and back of each card at home, Lin advises. The 1-800 number to call and report a lost or stolen card is very often on the back of your card -- which doesn't do you a lot of good once the card is no longer in your possession.

Too Much Cash

Lin offers the following rule of thumb when it comes to carrying cash: Bring only as much with you as you're willing to lose. "It's good to have a little cash on you at all times for emergencies, but you don't want to carry so much that you're going to feel a real hit if your wallet gets stolen." For people on a "cash diet," Lin recommends bringing only as much cash to cover the day's expenses.

Gift Cards/Certificates

"A lot of people carry these around thinking, 'I never know when I'm going to be passing this store,' but chances are, you're going to forget about it anyway, and if your wallet gets stolen, it's one of the first thing thieves are going to use," Lin says. Gift cards and gift certificates are just like cash -- they don't require ID for use. "Try to leave it at home and take it with you only when you are consciously going to shop at that store," Lin says. "Make it a special excursion; it's a treat to have free money to spend."

Jewelry or USB Devices

"It may sound silly, but if you're changing earrings or heading from a business meeting, it's very possible you may forget and toss these things in the zipper compartment of your wallet," says Lin. USB devices can be bad news in the hands of thieves if they contain confidential files. "It would be horrible to get your wallet stolen any day, but if you're also losing your grandmother's earrings or a presentation you've been working on for months, it's even worse!"

Receipts

Sometimes receipts can have your credit card information on them, as well as your signature, which thieves could do a lot of damage with. Additionally, if you've just purchased a big-ticket item like a new computer or jewelry, you may need that receipt for warranty purposes. "If you're planning to use your receipts for expense purposes at work, those few hundred dollars of business receipts can just vanish and your employer might not be so understanding," says Lin. "Get in the habit of taking out your receipts every night instead of carting them around with you."

Source: finance.yahoo.com - Author: Kathryn Tuggle

Japan-based Teijin Limited has announced that it has established mass production technologies for carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) that reduces the cycle time for molding automobile frames to less than one minute. In other words, by the time you're done reading this post (or maybe this and another one), Teijin could have made you a lightweight car frame.

This achievement, the company says, represents one of the most significant breakthroughs in the CFRP industry, calling it a massive step forwards to the adoption of the lightweight, fuel-saving carbon fiber composite in mass-produced vehicles.

To demonstrate its cutting-edge technology, Teijin has developed an electric concept car featuring its thermoplastic CFRP. The concept's frame weighs in at a mere 47 kilograms (104 pounds), which is approximately one fifth the weight of a conventional automobile frame, according to Teijin. The battery-powered four-seater is capable of hitting speeds of up to 37 miles per hour and can cruise along for 62 miles on a full charge. The concept embodies Teijin's ultimate vision of a super-lightweight, CFRP-framed electric city car of the future.

Source: Autoblog Green

The EU project UpWind started five years ago with an ambitious plan: more than 120 wind scientists' efforts and a budget of 23 million Euro were to provide the answer to the big question: Is it possible to build a 20 MW wind turbine using the methods and materials we know today? One single wind turbine of this type in the North Sea would provide electricity for 15,000 to 20,000 dwellings.

Is it technically possible and economically feasible?

There are 16,000-20,000 components in a wind turbine. The researchers focused on the main components in wind turbines to find answers to two fundamental questions: Is it technically possible to build a 20 megawatt wind turbine? Is it economically feasible to build it?

"The overall conclusion we can draw from the UpWind project is that if you built a 20 MW wind turbine based on existing technologies and methods, it will be 15-20 percent more expensive than today's wind turbines. I find that far from discouraging, for immediately I would expect that such a simple upscaling would give even higher energy prices, "says Peter Hjuler Jensen, Risø DTU, who has been in charge of the project.

An intelligent wind turbine blade is one of the solutions

Risø DTU and DTU Mechanical Engineering has significantly contributed in the development of aeroelastic design methods for wind turbines of up to 20 MW. Aeroelastic methods are used to calculate the wind turbine's dynamic response to turbulence in the wind. In the UpWind project, Risø DTU and DTU Mechanical Engineering studied aeroelastic methods, materials, management and regulation and many other technologies to be developed for designing a 20 M wind turbine.

Risø DTU has contributed very significantly to UpWind through the development of smart rotor blades with trailing edge-regulation. That means that the trailing edge of the blade can move up and down like flaps on an airplane.

"We have worked on developing several different types of sensor systems such as pitot tubes which are also used to measure the wind speed of aircrafts. Should we introduce these innovations to existing wind turbines, they would probably be more expensive, but if they are implemented on very large turbines the savings from load reductions probably would be competitive. Our conclusion is that upscaling opens up for new technologies, "says Peter Hjuler Jensen.

Various types of movable trailing edges for turbine blades and different mechanisms for activating the trailing edge movement have been tested, and the aerodynamic properties of the movable trailing edge have been studied in wind tunnels.

Laser technology to measure wind conditions

The second area in which Risø DTU has been making a substantial contribution to UpWind, is in the development of LIDAR technologies. A LIDAR measures the properties of the wind by means of laser beams. When UpWind started, Risø was the only research institution with a prototype of LIDAR to measure wind speed and with applications in wind energy research.

"During the five years of the UpWind project we have succeeded in developing the technology from this first prototype to a total of more than 200 LIDARs, of which 40 have been calibrated at Risø DTUs test station in Høvsøre in the western, more windy part of Denmark. LIDARs has now been developed into a stage where they easily can compete with the traditional anemometers used to measure wind speeds, and in amazingly short time, we managed to start using this new technology, says Peter Hjuler Jensen.

"You can imagine the difference between the two methods by thinking of a football field. With an anemometer you can measure the wind conditions in an area corresponding to the dot in the middle of the football field. The LIDAR is able to measure the wind on the whole football field in one go," says Peter Hjuler Jensen. It will open up new opportunities to gain insights into the wind turbulence, which affects wind turbines. Risø DTU has further explored the possibility of placing the LIDAR in the hub of a wind turbine, where it will be possible to let the LIDAR regulate the trailing edge. This would reduce fatigue and extreme loads on wind turbines.

Source: ScienceDaily