Open AccessCalculations on the wind climate in northern Finland: the importance of inversions and roughness variations during the seasons
Author(s) -
Frank Helmut P.,
Petersen Erik L.,
Hyvönen Reijo,
Tammelin Bengt
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
wind energy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.743
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 1099-1824
pISSN - 1095-4244
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-1824(199904/06)2:2<113::aid-we22>3.0.co;2-u
Subject(s) - climatology , environmental science , roughness length , wind speed , atmospheric sciences , fell , geostrophic wind , snow , meteorology , mesoscale meteorology , wind direction , geology , wind profile power law , geography , paleontology
The wind power potential around Pyhätunturi Fell in northern Finland is calculated with WAsP and the Karlsruhe Atmospheric Mesoscale Model (KAMM) using a climatology of the geostrophic wind from the global reanalysis of NCEP/NCAR. The importance of roughness variations between summer and winter due to snow cover and of strong, low‐level inversions during winter is investigated. At the position of a telemast on the fell the changing roughness led to an increase in the predicted wind power density of only 1% at 61 m. However, frequent inversions in winter have a major influence on the wind potential on the fell areas. Accounting for them increased the predicted wind power density by 10%–16%, giving better agreement with the observations. As expected, the wind in the plains is reduced during conditions with inversions. The simulations with KAMM were performed for a grid map with a resolution of 350 m. This is too rough to resolve the steep slopes of Pyhätunturi Fell. Therefore the predicted wind speed on the summit is underestimated by up to 15% depending on the wind direction. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.