P20     Sensitivity of boundary layer structure in complex terrain to land use and land surface models.

Pattantyus, Andre, U.S. Army Research Laboratory

The Perdigäo experiment in 2017 focused on the small scale wind patterns surrounding a low-profile double ridge.  Among the many goals of this project were to study the impact of the terrain on the flow impacting the turbine as it relates to wind energy potential and turbine fatigue. 
Numerical simulations for this area required high resolution topography and land use datasets in order to resolve prominent features and flow patterns.  The CORINE dataset provides the highest resolution (100-m) for land use and has been translated into the USGS classes for inclusion in WRF. This results in z0  0.1 over much the study area, whereas a LiDAR survey of the area in 2015 suggests the land surface is more complex in terms of canopy height (and z0).  To correct for this one could add an additional canopy drag parameterization, however will not fully account for changes in land use properties that impact surface fluxes.  Methods examined here include:  reclassifying the land use categories and utilizing a more complex land surface model that includes a canopy layer (Noah-MP).  A series of experiments are performed to determine the impact of these changes on wind fields in the Perdigao study area.