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Roughness‐dependent geographical interpolation of surface wind speed averages
Author(s) -
Wieringa J.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
quarterly journal of the royal meteorological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.744
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1477-870X
pISSN - 0035-9009
DOI - 10.1002/qj.49711247316
Subject(s) - mesoscale meteorology , geostrophic wind , terrain , roughness length , meteorology , wind speed , environmental science , planetary boundary layer , boundary layer , interpolation (computer graphics) , wind profile power law , surface roughness , wind direction , geology , climatology , geodesy , geography , computer science , cartography , animation , turbulence , physics , computer graphics (images) , quantum mechanics , thermodynamics
A two‐layer boundary layer model is presented for regional assessment of seasonal‐average surface wind climate from station data. In the surface layer the wind measurements are objectively corrected for imperfect station exposure, using gustiness‐derived roughness values for each azimuth sector. This produces at 60 m a mesoscale wind speed, U m , representative for a 5×5km 2 area block. The regional averaging of U m in the Ekman layer is done by geostrophic similarity methods, referring to a mesoscale block roughness obtained from maps through terrain classification. All wind data for the flat Netherlands are analysed, using a 30‐year series of annual windiness indices for time‐span adjustment of non‐simultaneous data series. The evaluation leads to objectively interpolated seasonal surface wind maps, supplemented by wind distributions and extreme design wind speeds. Possible extension of the methodology to complex terrain is discussed.