Analysis of WRF Model Wind Estimate Sensitivity to Physics Parameterization Choice and Terrain Representation in Andalusia (Southern Spain)

This paper reports on an evaluation of the relative roles of choice of parameterization scheme and terrain representation in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) mesoscale model, in the context of a regional wind resource assessment. As a first step, 32 configurations using two different schemes for microphysics, cumulus, planetary boundary layer (PBL), or shortwave and longwave radiation were evaluated. In a second step, wind estimates that were obtained from various experiments with different spatial resolution (1, 3, and 9 km) were assessed. Estimates were tested against data from four stations, located in southern Spain, that provided hourly wind speed and direction data at 40m above ground level. Results from the first analysis showed that wind speed standard deviation (STD) and bias values were mainly sensitive to the PBL parameterization selection, with STD differences up to 10% and bias differences between -15% and 10%. The second analysis showed a weak influence of spatial resolution on the STD values. On the other hand, the bias was found to be highly sensitive to model spatial resolution. The sign of the bias depended on terrain morphology and the spatial resolution, but absolute values tended to be much higher with coarser spatial resolution. Physical configuration was found to have little impact on wind direction distribution estimates. In addition, these estimates proved to be more sensitive to the ability of WRF to represent the terrain morphology around the station than to the model spatial resolution itself.