Developing a high-resolution wind map for a complex terrain with a coupled MM5/CALMET system

This study investigates the wind energy potential in Hong Kong, a region with a complex terrain, by coupling the prognostic MM5 mesoscale model with the CALMET diagnostic model to produce high-resolution wind fields. Hourly wind fields were simulated for the entire year of 2004. The MM5 simulations were performed on a nested grid from 40.5 km down to 1.5 km horizontal resolution. The CALMET meteorological model was used in a domain that includes the entire Hong Kong region with a high horizontal resolution of 100 m. The MM5 model wind field ( 1.5 km horizontal resolution) output was input into the CALMET diagnostic meteorological model every hour along with an objective analysis procedure using all available observations. Verification was achieved through two steps. In the first step, the data from three meteorological surface stations that were not assimilated into the CALMET model were compared horizontally with the simulated wind fields. In the second step, the simulated wind fields were compared vertically with the vertical wind profile collected from two upper air sounding stations. The results of this study identified the locations of the highest wind energy potential in HK down to 100 m resolution.