Evaluation of offshore wind energy potential using SAR and MM5

K. Kozai; T. Ohsawa

doi:10.1117/12.733247

5 October 2007 Evaluation of offshore wind energy potential using SAR and MM5

K. Kozai, T. Ohsawa

Proceedings Volume 6680, Coastal Ocean Remote Sensing; 66800Y (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.733247
Event: Optical Engineering + Applications, 2007, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Combined use of Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) onboard ENVISAT and the mesoscale model MM5 is proposed in this study to assess offshore wind energy potential. As far as the validation is concerned, 22 ASAR scenes are processed to estimate wind speed distribution by using CMOD4 and CMOD-IFR2 algorithms over Tanabe Bay, which is the target area of this study and has an offshore wind observation station. These algorithms require inputs of relative wind direction, which is usually defined as the ASAR viewing direction relative to the observed wind direction at the time of ASAR overpass. In this study MM5-simulated wind direction is used as a substitute of the observed wind direction for calculating relative wind direction, and the estimated wind speeds are compared with observed wind speeds at the offshore station. RMS errors and biases of CMOD4 and CMOD-IFR2 with inputs of observed wind direction are 2.05m/s, -0.80m/s and 2.16m/s, -0.54m/s respectively. On the other hand, in the case of using the MM5-simulated wind direction as a substitute of the observed wind direction, these statistics are 2.28m/s, -1.16m/s and 2.39m/s, -0.75m/s, respectively. That is, the accuracies of the estimated wind speed using MM5- simulated wind direction are found to be worse slightly. However, these results indicate that ASAR-based wind estimation in combination with MM5-simulated wind vectors can be a promising approach for offshore wind mapping, especially for coastal waters with complicated onshore terrains and coastlines in Japan.

Citation Download Citation

K. Kozai and T. Ohsawa "Evaluation of offshore wind energy potential using SAR and MM5", Proc. SPIE 6680, Coastal Ocean Remote Sensing, 66800Y (5 October 2007); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.733247

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