Effect of horizontal and vertical resolution for wind resource assessment in Metro Manila, Philippines using Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model

Abstract

Wind energy is one of the best options for renewable energy such that, many researchers work on wind resource assessment, specifically using numerical weather prediction (NWP) model to forecast atmospheric behavior on a given domain. In addition, every combination of parameterization configuration influences wind assessment. At the same time, choosing the optimum vertical and horizontal resolution may affect its output and processing time. Regardless of available researches, most of them focuses on mid-latitude area but not in tropical areas like the Philippines. In the study, sensitivity analysis of Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model version 3.6.1 with 4 configurations was performed. The duration of the simulation was from January 1, 2014 00:00 to December 31, 2014 23:00. The parameters involved were horizontal resolution and vertical levels. Also, meteorological input data from NCEP Final Analysis with 1 degree resolution every 6 hours was used. For validation, wind speed measurements at 10 m height from NOAA Integrated Surface Database (ISD) were utilized, of which, the 3 weather stations are located in Manila, Science Garden and Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). The results show that increasing horizontal resolution from 4 km to 1 km have no significant increase to wind speed accuracy. In majority, higher vertical levels tend to increase its accuracy. Moreover, the model has higher accuracy during the rainy season and months of April and May. Overall, the model overestimated the observed wind speed but the diurnal cycle of wind speed follows all the simulation.