Comparative Performance Analysis of Different Wind Fields in the Southern and North-western Coastal Areas of the Black Sea

Abstract

This study determines the qualities of atmospheric wind field data in comparison with wind measurements at five locations along the Black Sea coast. For this purpose, four different wind fields were obtained from three different weather centers (NCEP, NASA, and ECMWF). Three of these are reanalyzed winds (Climate Forecast System Reanalysis CFSR, Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications MERRA, ECMWF reanalyses ERA-Interim), and one is an operational dataset (ECMWF operational). Their performances were determined using the wind measurements from 2000 to 2014 at five coastal locations along the southern coastline of the Black Sea (Kumköy, Amasra, Sinop, Giresun, Hopa) and from 2006 to 2009 at the offshore location (Gloria) off the coast of Romania. The performances of these wind fields were determined based on statistical characteristics (mean, standard deviation and variation coefficient, etc.), the statistical error analysis for all data and for different wind speed intervals, the wind roses and the probability distributions. Additionally, long-term variations of the yearly error values (SI and bias) of wind speeds from wind data sources during 2000 - 2014 were discussed. Finally, it was concluded that the CFSR wids give the best performance at most stations. The ECMWF datasets yield better results along the western side but the CFSR wind fields have shown better performances along the eastern side of the Black Sea coast and at the Gloria offshore location.