Assessing mesoscale wind simulations in different environments

Abstract

An adequate simulation of the wind in the near surface marine environment is important for a large range of applications, including energy assessments. In this work, wind speed simulated by different models is evaluated through comparison with observational data. Three experiments using two open mesoscale models (MM5 and WRF) under different types of simulation mode were considered together with two institutional meteorological models (IFS and Aladin). Observational data measured over land in meteorological stations, in the near coast by marine buoys and in the open sea by altimetry, were used for the comparisons. Results show that although IFS is the model with the best results, the three experiments using WRF and MM5 are also of good quality, especially in the coast and open ocean.The added value of using a mesoscale model over global, lower resolution ones, usually used as driver, is investigated for the different environments (land, coast and open ocean) and the three experiments. Using the Brier skill score, it is found that there is added value in the case of simulations over land and in the coast, but not for the open ocean.