Skip to main content
OSTI.GOVU.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
 

Validating simulated mountain wave impacts on hub-height wind speed using SoDAR observations

Journal Article · · Renewable Energy
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
  2. State Univ. of New York (SUNY), Albany, NY (United States)
  3. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations
The ascent of stably stratified air over a mountain barrier can trigger the generation of mountain waves. Mountain waves occur frequently over the Columbia River Gorge in western North America and can impact wind power generation over the area. Therefore, predicting the details of mountain waves events (e.g., dominant wavelength, timing, and duration) can be very valuable for the wind energy community. In this study, the ability of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to simulate mountain waves and their impact on hub-height wind speed is investigated. Our results suggest that the WRF model has moderate skill in simulating observed mountain wave. Further, given WRF predictions of wavelength range and wave period, the Fast Fourier Transform can calculate the simulated mountain wave impact on hub-height wind speed. The resulting wind speeds agree well with SoDAR observations in terms of both magnitude and pattern. Finally, for the simulated cases, WRF consistently predicts impacts of significant mountain wave events about an hour earlier than the actual observations. Overall, in this work, the sensitivities as well as uncertainties associated with our methodology are discussed in detail.
Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE; USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1713291
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1778507
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA--5000-77995; MainId:31904; UUID:93ad68ec-5ec5-4f9e-b7f4-2785794ec0ca; MainAdminID:18808
Journal Information:
Renewable Energy, Journal Name: Renewable Energy Vol. 163; ISSN 0960-1481
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (28)

Theory of waves in the lee of mountains journal January 1949
The ERA-Interim reanalysis: configuration and performance of the data assimilation system journal April 2011
Simulating impacts of real-world wind farms on land surface temperature using the WRF model: physical mechanisms journal March 2019
Trends in northern midlatitude atmospheric wave power from 1950 to 2099 journal February 2020
Representativeness of wind measurements in moderately complex terrain journal February 2018
A time-split nonhydrostatic atmospheric model for weather research and forecasting applications journal March 2008
Radiative forcing by long-lived greenhouse gases: Calculations with the AER radiative transfer models journal January 2008
Development of a turbulence closure model for geophysical fluid problems journal January 1982
Spectra of Anisotropic Turbulence in the Atmosphere journal December 1969
A guided tour of the fast Fourier transform journal July 1969
Grand challenges in the science of wind energy journal October 2019
Coupling an Advanced Land Surface–Hydrology Model with the Penn State–NCAR MM5 Modeling System. Part I: Model Implementation and Sensitivity journal April 2001
Explicit Forecasts of Winter Precipitation Using an Improved Bulk Microphysics Scheme. Part II: Implementation of a New Snow Parameterization journal December 2008
The Weather Research and Forecasting Model: Overview, System Efforts, and Future Directions journal August 2017
The Second Wind Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP2): Observational Field Campaign journal September 2019
The Second Wind Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP2): General Overview journal September 2019
Improving Wind Energy Forecasting through Numerical Weather Prediction Model Development journal November 2019
Numerical Simulations of Two Trapped Mountain Lee Waves Downstream of Oahu journal May 2017
A Study of Aerosol Impacts on Clouds and Precipitation Development in a Large Winter Cyclone journal October 2014
Trends in Tropical Wave Activity from the 1980s to 2016 journal February 2019
A Revised Scheme for the WRF Surface Layer Formulation journal March 2012
Simulating Impacts of Real-World Wind Farms on Land Surface Temperature Using the WRF Model: Validation with Observations journal December 2017
A New Vertical Diffusion Package with an Explicit Treatment of Entrainment Processes journal September 2006
Development of an Improved Turbulence Closure Model for the Atmospheric Boundary Layer journal January 2009
Exchange Processes in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer Over Mountainous Terrain journal March 2018
Current Challenges in Understanding and Predicting Transport and Exchange in the Atmosphere over Mountainous Terrain journal July 2018
High-Resolution Observations of Transport and Exchange Processes in Mountainous Terrain journal November 2018
Impact of model improvements on 80 m wind speeds during the second Wind Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP2) journal January 2019

Similar Records

Mountain waves can impact wind power generation
Journal Article · Wed Jan 06 19:00:00 EST 2021 · Wind Energy Science (Online) · OSTI ID:1756119

Related Subjects

17 WIND ENERGY
Fourier filtering
WRF modeling
mountain wave
wind forecasting