A Statistical Model for Wind Prediction at a Mountain and Valley Station Near Anderson Creek, California

Abstract

Statistical models for surface-wind predictions at a mountain and a valley station near Anderson Creek, California, have been constructed. It is found that the surface wind speed depends primarily on the slope wind, cross-isobaric angle, surface thermal stability and geostrophic wind. The correlations between the calculated and observed surface wind speeds are found to be high for all time periods of the day and night. Because the variability of wind direction, which is greatly affected by topography, geostrophic wind and turbulent motion, is generally larger than that of the surface wind speed, statistical models for wind direction are more complicated than those for the wind speed. It is found that wind direction depends primarily on the geostrophic wind direction, aspect angle of the topography, up-canyon direction and cross-isobaric angle in the boundary layer.