The WRF Model Forecast-Derived Low-Level Wind Shear Climatology over the United States Great Plains

Energies

Brandon Storm¹ 

[1] Wind Science and Engineering Research Center, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA; E-Mail:

关键词: directional shear;    low-level jet;    numerical weather prediction;    shear exponent;   

DOI  :  10.3390/en3020258

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

For wind resource assessment projects, it is common practice to use a power-law relationship (. These findings highlight the critical need for detailed spatio-temporal characterizations of wind shear climatology over the USGP, where numerous large wind farms will be constructed in the foreseeable future. In this paper, a new generation numerical weather prediction model—the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, a fast and relatively inexpensive alternative to time-consuming and costly tall-tower projects, is utilized to determine whether it can reliably estimate the shear exponent and the magnitude of the directional shear at any arbitrary location over the USGP. Our results indicate that the WRF model qualitatively captures several low-level wind shear characteristics. However, there is definitely room for physics parameterization improvements for the WRF model to reliably represent the lower part of the atmospheric boundary layer.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2010 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.