Modeling Study on Seasonal Variations of Wind Resource over Korea

Wind resource highly depends on variations of near-surface wind speed. In this study, regional climate-induced seasonal variations in near-surface wind speed were evaluated using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model for the period from 1982 to 2011 to investigate the seasonal predictability of long-term wind resources. The simulated results showed distinct seasonal variations and its related characteristics of near-surface wind speed over Korea. East Asian monsoon regimes, with strong Northwesterlies at cold seasons and weak Southwesterlies at warm seasons were reproduced well. The characteristics of monsoonal flows were also presented at near-surface level. The WRF model slightly overestimated the near-surface wind speed with slightly positive biases in all seasons, more and less bias in cold and warm seasons, respectively. Temporal variability in the spatial averaged wind-speed was in a good agreement between simulations and measurements. These results indicate regional climate model is useful for assessment of seasonal variations in wind resource.