Analysis of the time dynamics in wind records by means of multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis and the Fisher-Shannon information plane

The time structure of more than 10 years of hourly wind data measured at one site in northern Italy from April 1996 to December 2007 is analysed. The data were recorded by the Sodar Rass system, which measures the speed and the direction of the wind at several heights above the ground level. To investigate the wind speed time series at seven heights above the ground level we used two different approaches: (i) multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MF-DFA), which permits the detection of multifractality in nonstationary series, and (ii) the Fisher-Shannon (FS) information plane, which allows the discrimination of dynamical features in complex time series. Our results point to the existence of multifractal time fluctuations in wind speed and to a dependence of the results on the height of the wind sensor. Even in the FS information plane a height-dependent pattern is revealed, indicating a good agreement with the multifractality. The obtained results could contribute to a better understanding of the complex dynamics of wind phenomena.