Abstract
Abstract. This work aims to study the seasonal difference in normalized wind speed above the surface layer as it is observed at the 160 m high mast at the coastal site Høvsøre at winds from the sea (westerly). Normalized and stability averaged wind speeds above the surface layer are observed to be 20 to 50% larger in the winter/spring seasons compared to the summer/autumn seasons at winds from west within the same atmospheric stability class. A method combining the mesoscale model, COAMPS, and observations of the surface stability of the marine boundary layer is presented. The objective of the method is to reconstruct the seasonal signal in normalized wind speed and identify the physical process behind. The method proved reasonably successful in capturing the relative difference in wind speed between seasons, indicating that the simulated physical processes are likely candidates to the observed seasonal signal in normalized wind speed.
Highlights
An increasing demand for the ability to estimate the wind climate above the surface layer in coastal regions has been generated by the wind power industry because of the steady increase of modern wind turbines with hub heights well above the surface layer height
The objective of the method is to reconstruct the seasonal signal in normalized wind speed and identify the physical process behind
The wind energy potential is proportional to the cube of the wind speed at hub height, implying that even a small error in estimating the wind speed can have a large impact on the wind energy assessment
Summary
An increasing demand for the ability to estimate the wind climate above the surface layer in coastal regions has been generated by the wind power industry because of the steady increase of modern wind turbines with hub heights well above the surface layer height. Conventional methods for assessing wind speed at heights of up to 200 m, such as that of Troen and Lundtang (1989), are derived from wind measurement taken close to the surface and extrapolated to greater heights by assuming a logarithmic increase of the wind speed with height, with a correction for stability effects. An observational study is undertaken in order to quantify the effects on the wind profile from the upstream surface conditions. The selected boundary layer processes in the idealized modelling are kept under easy control and we are able to test the models ability to reproduce the observed wind profile in an idealized atmosphere where only a few boundary layer processes are at play
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