Weather Research and Forecasting model validation with NREL specifications over the New York/New Jersey Bight for offshore wind development

Abstract

The New York and New Jersey Bight is the new epicenter for offshore wind development. This region has many different meteorological and ocean-based processes that affect this area for potential offshore wind development. Using a locally focused Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) application can help with this analysis of the wind energy area. WRF outputs several variables that can be used in this evaluation. This study will focus on wind speed, wind direction, sea surface temperature, and a wind shear exponent calculated by wind speeds at available heights. The information extracted from these WRF models is vital to wind developers as it allows them to more thoroughly understand the available wind resource given limited observational data, and help them better understand the surrounding environment. To make sure that these products are producing the best output possible, models are validated against both each other and available observations. In this study, we will be validating national models including the North American Regional Model (NAM), the Global Forecast System (GFS), and the High-Resolution Rapid Refresh model (HRRR) against the Rutgers WRF model setup (RU WRF). It is important to have other models as a comparison point so we can see how a more scaled regional model can depict the wind area in comparison to the larger scaled models. We use publicly available observation data from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind Development floating LIDAR. The observational points are either inside the wind energy areas or close to them. With the validated wind data, we can begin to explore and learn from how the model captures oceanographic processes and phenomena such as wind shear and stability.