Wind Characteristics and Assessment Using Meteorological Reanalysis Data over Selected Areas of South Algeria

Abstract

The aim of this study is to evaluate the accuracy of two meteorological global reanalysis data sets in reproducing wind power regimes over three selected regions in south Algeria characterized by their high wind potential. The 3-hourly horizontal wind components at 10 m Above Ground Level (AGL) are extracted from the gridded reanalysis: ERA-interim data from the European Center for Medium Forecast (ECMWF) and the National Center for Environmental Prediction-National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP-NCAR) reanalysis data at three geographical locations, namely Adrar ( N ;  W), In- Salah ( N ;  E) and HassiR’mel ( N ;  E). A study period spanning from January 2001 to December 2015 (15 years) was chosen. The extracted reanalysis data were compared on a daily basis with in-situ measurement data over the selected areas in terms of Bias, Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and correlation coefficient (R). The wind rose frequency was also used for wind assessment. Globally, the ERA-interim and NCEP-NCAR reanalysis data were able to reproduce the wind regime over the selected regions despite an underestimation of the wind speed over all three regions. Average reanalysis daily wind speed ranges between -.. Overall, in the selected regions, better performance in reproducing the daily wind regime is achieved by ERA-interim reanalysis data with a minimum bias and a high correlation coefficient value of 0.85 in the region of In-Salah. Also, at the interannual time scale, the underestimation of wind speed is more significant, with a bias exceedingly high in periods of high wind activity. This period of high wind speed occurs in Spring (region of HassiR’mel) and extends to Summer (Adrar and In-Salah) with a predicted maximum monthly wind speed of during March-May at HassiR’mel and during May-July for Adrar and In-Salah.