scholarly journals SARAL-AltiKa Wind and Significant Wave Height for Offshore Wind Energy Applications in the New England Region

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 57
Author(s):  
Xinba Li ◽  
Panagiotis Mitsopoulos ◽  
Yue Yin ◽  
Malaquias Peña

The SARAL-AltiKa dataset was evaluated for refined offshore wind energy resources assessment and potential metocean monitoring capability in the Southern New England region. Surface wind speed and Significant Wave Height (Hs) products were assessed with corresponding variables from buoy observations for 2014–2019. To increase the sample size, this study analyzed and applied an approach to collect data around the reference buoys beyond the satellite footprint at the expense of a bias increment. The study corroborated the accuracy of the SARAL-AltiKa measurements for the offshore area of interest and added details for stations closer to the coast compared with past studies. A proportional bias with underestimation of high values of Hs was found in coastal sites. Wind speed estimates on the other hand appear to be less sensitive to the closeness to the coast. The empirical relationship between wind strength and Hs in the buoy observations is reproduced to a large extent by the AltiKa measurements in locations where land contamination is minimal. The histograms of surface wind and Hs are well described by the Weibull distribution and the shape and scale parameters closely resemble those of the histograms of the collocated in situ observations. We use these results to extrapolate the winds to a target domain with no in situ observations for wind energy resource estimation.

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (24) ◽  
pp. 2998 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesco Nencioli ◽  
Graham D. Quartly

Due to the smaller ground footprint and higher spatial resolution of the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) mode, altimeter observations from the Sentinel-3 satellites are expected to be overall more accurate in coastal areas than conventional nadir altimetry. The performance of Sentinel-3A in the coastal region of southwest England was assessed by comparing SAR mode observations of significant wave height against those of Pseudo Low Resolution Mode (PLRM). Sentinel-3A observations were evaluated against in-situ observations from a network of 17 coastal wave buoys, which provided continuous time-series of hourly values of significant wave height, period and direction. As the buoys are evenly distributed along the coast of southwest England, they are representative of a broad range of morphological configurations and swell conditions against which to assess Sentinel-3 SAR observations. The analysis indicates that SAR observations outperform PLRM within 15 km from the coast. Within that region, regression slopes between SAR and buoy observations are close to the 1:1 relation, and the average root mean square error between the two is 0.46 ± 0.14 m. On the other hand, regression slopes for PLRM observations rapidly deviate from the 1:1 relation, while the average root mean square error increases to 0.84 ± 0.45 m. The analysis did not identify any dependence of the bias between SAR and in-situ observation on the swell period or direction. The validation is based on a synergistic approach which combines satellite and in-situ observations with innovative use of numerical wave model output to help inform the choice of comparison regions. Such an approach could be successfully applied in future studies to assess the performance of SAR observations over other combinations of coastal regions and altimeters.


Author(s):  
Aljoscha Sander ◽  
Andreas F. Haselsteiner ◽  
Kader Barat ◽  
Michael Janssen ◽  
Stephan Oelker ◽  
...  

Abstract During single blade installation in offshore wind farms, relative motion between nacelle and blade root due to wind and wave excitation pose a significant challenge. Wave excitation can be modelled considerably well by employing state-of-the-art simulation tools and can, therefore, be included in installation planning. Other phenomena, such as flow-induced vibrations are hard to capture and hence challenging to account for when defining installation procedures and limitations. Here, we present measurements conducted during the installation of an offshore wind farm consisting of multi-megawatt turbines installed on monopile foundations in the North Sea. A custom-built sensor capturing linear & angular acceleration and GPS-data was deployed atop the nacelle. Both partially and fully assembled turbines displayed complex oscillation orbits, swiftly changing amplitude and direction. Mean nacelle deflection correlated strongly with significant wave height as well as mean wind speed. As wind speed and significant wave height showed a strong correlation as well, it is difficult to discern which load drives the observed relative motions. While wind loads are significantly smaller than wave loads on partially assembled turbines under installation conditions, additional momentum induced by vortex shedding may prove sufficient to cause the observed effects.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 2858
Author(s):  
Jiuke Wang ◽  
Lotfi Aouf ◽  
Yongjun Jia ◽  
Youguang Zhang

HY2B is now the latest altimetry mission that provides global nadir significant wave height (SWH) and sea surface wind speed. The validation and calibration of HY2B are carried out against National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) buoy observations from April 2019 to April 2020. In general, the HY2B altimeter measurements agree well with buoy observation, with scatter index of 9.4% for SWH, and 15.1% for wind speed. However, we observed a significant bias of 0.14 m for SWH and −0.42 m/s for wind speed. A deep learning technique is novelly applied for the calibration of HY2B SWH and wind speed. Deep neural network (DNN) is built and trained to correct SWH and wind speed by using input from parameters provided by the altimeter such as sigma0, sigma0 standard deviation (STD). The results based on DNN show a significant reduction of the bias, root mean square error (RMSE), and scatter index (SI) for both SWH and wind speed. Several DNN schemes based on different combination of input parameters have been examined in order to obtain the best model for the calibration. The analysis reveals that sigma0 STD is a key parameter for the calibration of HY2B SWH and wind speed.


Author(s):  
I. Dinwoodie ◽  
F. Quail ◽  
D. McMillan

This paper presents a novel approach to repair modeling using a time domain Auto-Regressive model to represent meteo-ocean site conditions. The short term hourly correlations, medium term access windows of periods up to days and the annual distribution of site data are captured. In addition, seasonality is included. Correlation observed between wind and wave site can be incorporated if simultaneous data exists. Using this approach a time series for both significant wave height and mean wind speed is described. This allows MTTR to be implemented within the reliability simulation as a variable process, dependent on significant wave height. This approach automatically captures site characteristics including seasonality and allows for complex analysis using time dependent constraints such as working patterns to be implemented. A simple cost model for lost revenue determined by the concurrent simulated wind speed is also presented. A preliminary investigation of the influence of component reliability and access thresholds at various existing sites on availability is presented demonstrating the ability of the modeling approach to offer new insights into offshore wind turbine operation and maintenance.


Atmosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Delei Li ◽  
Joanna Staneva ◽  
Sebastian Grayek ◽  
Arno Behrens ◽  
Jianlong Feng ◽  
...  

This study performed several sensitivity experiments to investigate the impact of atmosphere–wave coupling on the simulated wind and waves over the East China Sea (ECS) with a focus on typhoon events. These experiments include stand-alone regional atmosphere model (CCLM) simulations, stand-alone spectral wave model (WAM) simulations driven by the regional atmospheric model CCLM or ERA5 reanalysis, and two-way (CCLM-WAM) coupled simulations. We assessed the simulated wind speed and significant wave height against in situ observations and remote sensing data and focused on typhoon events in 2010. We analyzed the differences between the experiments in capturing the surface pressure, wind speed, and roughness length. Both ERA5 reanalysis data and our regional model simulations demonstrate high quality in capturing wind and wave conditions over the ECS. The results show that downscaled simulations tend to be closer to in situ observations than ERA5 reanalysis data in capturing wind variability and probability distribution, dominant wind and wave directions, strong typhoon intensity and related extreme significant wave height. In comparison with satellite observations, the CCLM-WAM simulation outperforms the CCLM in reducing wind bias. The coupled and uncoupled simulations are very similar in terms of other wind and wave statistics. Though there is much improvement in capturing typhoon intensity to ERA5, regional downscaled simulations still underestimate the wind intensity of tropical cyclones.


1978 ◽  
Vol 1 (16) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Joseph W. Maresca ◽  
Christopher T. Carlson

We measured significant wave height, and surface wind speed and direction for the first two Gulf of Mexico hurricanes of the 1977 season using a high frequency (HF) skywave radar. The radar measurements were made from California by using the SRI-operated Wide Aperture Research Facility (WARF). We recorded sea backscatter for hurricanes Anita and Babe, at distances more than 3000 km from the WARF, by means of single F-layer ionospheric reflection. We compiled real-time maps of the surface wind direction field within a radial distance of 200 km of the storm center, then estimated the hurricane position from these radar wind maps, and developed a track for Anita over a 4 day period between 30 August and 2 September 1977 as the storm moved westward across the Gulf of Mexico. The radar track was computed from 17 independent position estimates made before Anita crossed the Mexican coast, and was subsequently compared to the official track produced by National Hurricane Center (NHC). Agreement between the WARF position estimates and coincident temporal positions on the NHC smooth track was ±19 km. At approximately 0000Z on 1 September 1977, Anita passed within 50 km of the National Data Buoy Office (NDBO) open ocean moored buoy EB-71, and provided us with the opportunity to compare WARF estimates of the significant wave height, and surface wind speed and direction in all four quadrants of the storm with those made at the buoy. Agreement between the WARF and EB-71 measurements was within 10%. Two days after Anita crossed land, tropical storm Babe—a weaker, short-lived storm—developed. WARF estimates of the significant wave height, and surface wind speed and direction were made for selected regions of the storm.* No in situ wave measurements were available for comparison to the WARF measurements. WARF estimates of the wind speed were compared to wind speed measurements made at nearby oil platforms, and surface wind speeds computed from flight level winds (305 m) measured by a NOAA reconnaissance aircraft. Agreement was again within 10%. The purpose of this paper is to describe the capability of remotely monitoring hurricanes and other open ocean storms by using an HF skywave radar. We will describe the important aspects of the WARF skywave radar, the sea echo Doppler spectra, the method of analysis used to estimate the wave and wind parameters, and the accuracy of these radar-derived quantities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 4313
Author(s):  
Daniel Pascual ◽  
Maria Paola Clarizia ◽  
Christopher S. Ruf

This article presents the methodology for an improved estimation of the sea surface wind speed measured by the cyclone global navigation satellite system (CYGNSS) constellation of satellites using significant wave height (SWH) information as external reference data. The methodology consists of a correcting 2D look-up table (LUT) with inputs: (1) the CYGNSS wind speed given by the geophysical model function (GMF); and (2) the collocated reference SWH given by the WW3 model, which is forced by winds from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) organization. In particular, the analyzed CYGNSS wind speeds are the fully developed seas (FDS) obtained with the GMF 3.0, and the forcing winds are the ECMWF forecast winds. Results show an increase in sensitivity to large winds speeds and an overall reduction in the root mean square difference (RMSD) with respect to the ECMWF winds from 2.05 m/s to 1.74 m/s. The possible influence of the ECWMF winds on the corrected winds (due to their use in the WW3 model) is analyzed by considering the correlation between: (1) the difference between the ECMWF winds and those from another reference; and (2) the difference between the corrected CYGNSS winds and those from the same reference. Results using ASCAT, WindSat, Jason, and AltiKa as references show no significant influence.


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