Title:Characterizing Hub-height Wind Speed Dependence on Atmospheric Processes in an Offshore Wind Environment

Presenter(s): Akarshna Iyer

Date: 21 October 2024 1:30 pm – 2:00 pm ET

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About Speaker:Akarshna Iyer

Abstract: Wind energy is a form of renewable energy that has been growing in implementation and use over the past years. However, this situation is rapidly changing, with several new offshore leases being issued to advance offshore wind energy generation. NOAA and other organizations, including the DOE, have sponsored the third Wind Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP3), a coordinated field campaign and analysis designed to improve offshore wind forecasting. This work focuses on the characterization of low-level jets (LLJs), jet streams found in the lower troposphere, that take place over Block Island, RI, and Nantucket, MA (two of the WFIP3 sites). The research questions this work seeks to answer are: Is the meteorology of the LLJ region consistent for multiple LLJ events? What is the meteorology pattern when an LLJ is present (offshore), and why? Individual LLJ cases were analyzed using observations from various WFIP3 remote sensing instruments. Preliminary results suggest, through analysis of the thermodynamic structure of the marine atmospheric boundary layer, that LLJs with predominantly southerly flow seem to correlate with warm air advection and periods of strengthened near-surface stability. The mechanisms that drive LLJs in regions off the U.S. East Coast are relatively unknown, making it an important area of study, especially since LLJ events seem to have larger errors in the High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model’s wind forecasts. The presence of LLJs and their shear levels can affect overall wind power generation and cause unwanted damage to wind turbines. This research benefits the science community and society because improved wind energy forecasts will increase energy reliability. The results are from the NOAA EPP/MSI CSC NERTO graduate internship project that was conducted with NOAA mentor Dr. David Turner of NOAA Research, Global Systems Laboratory (GSL), Boulder, CO. The NERTO aligns with NOAA CSC CESSRST-II’s goal to conduct NOAA mission-aligned collaborative research; the mission is To understand and predict changes in climate, weather, ocean, and coasts. The NERTO deepened the intern’s understanding of NOAA, and her results will inform future analyses of the HRRR using WFIP3 data, resulting in a faster understanding of errors within the HRRR as a function of weather conditions during low-level jet events.