Benoit, R., Yu, W.. A Validated High-resolution Canadian Wind Atlas: Validation of selected preliminary results obtained in EOLE mode, Prepared for NRCan, January 2003

After the initial meeting of November 2002 at Booth Street, Ottawa, to discuss a joint venture between NRCAN and EC to build a modernized validated wind atlas for Canada based on the WEST numerical wind mapping system, it was agreed that the WEST team performs a limited validation of some of its preliminary results. In particular, compare the WEST results for Southwestern Saskatchewan with those of Salmon and Stalker (1994), obtained for NRCAN/CanMET and SaskPower. This is done here. We also give validation aspects for two other areas: the Gaspé peninsula and the Kingston area, a new WEST calculation. In that way, the reliable performance of WEST will be established over a variety of landscapes, all to be encountered in a full new national wind atlas for Canada.

The WEST results used herein are all new calculations in EOLE mode: indeed a bug was found and corrected in one of our climate classification algorithms (the one for the EOLE mode), which caused the mesoscale model (MC2) to generate excessive airspeeds. We also take opportunity to use revised roughness lengths (z0) that are more in line with the micrometeorology (i.e. based on the local land cover). Previously, an orographic component was added in z0 to account for the flow-blocking effect of mounatins; computed from the unresoved topographic variance, it led to large values of z0, up to almost 100 m (eg in the Alps).

Our results establish that WEST provides wind maps essentially bias-free and having realistic time-frequency distributions (Weybull curves).