Evaluation of Single-Doppler Radar Wind Retrievals in Flat and Complex Terrain

Abstract

he accuracy of winds derived from Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD) level-II data is assessed by comparison with independent observations from 915-MHz radar wind profilers. The evaluation is carried out at two locations with very different terrain characteristics. One site is located in an area of complex terrain within the State Line Wind Energy Center in northeastern Oregon. The other site is located in an area of flat terrain on the east-central Florida coast. The National Severe Storm Laboratory?s two-dimensional variational data assimilation (2DVar) algorithm is used to retrieve wind fields from the KPDT (Pendleton, Oregon) and KMLB (Melbourne, Florida) NEXRAD radars. Wind speed correlations at most observation height levels fell in the range from 0.7 to 0.8, indicating that the retrieved winds followed temporal fluctuations in the profiler-observed winds reasonably well. The retrieved winds, however, consistently exhibited slow biases in the range of 1?2 m s?1. Wind speed difference distributions were broad, with standard deviations in the range from 3 to 4 m s?1. Results from the Florida site showed little change in the wind speed correlations and difference standard deviations with altitude between about 300 and 1400 m AGL. Over this same height range, results from the Oregon site showed a monotonic increase in the wind speed correlation and a monotonic decrease in the wind speed difference standard deviation with increasing altitude. The poorest overall agreement occurred at the lowest observable level (~300 m AGL) at the Oregon site, where the effects of the complex terrain were greatest.