Offshore wind resource mapping in Cambodia: Sensitivity assessment of the weather research and forecasting model

The objective of this paper is to assess the sensitivity of the weather research and forecasting (WRF) to three important parameters: nesting with nudging options, planetary boundary layer (PBL) options, and nudged variable options for Cambodian territory. Three tests are set up and carried out, and each of the test, intended for each parameter, is comprised of several experiments. All experiments are simulated for the same period of 15-day. Then the outputs of the WRF model are validated against measured wind data from four meteorological stations at 10 m above the ground level. The results show that the WRF is unlikely influenced by the nesting choices but more sensitive to the PBL options for wind speed simulation. In term of wind direction, the model is insensitive to any of the tested parameters. Through statistical and graphical analyses, the best experiments are found to be the two-way nesting with gridded nudging for nesting with nudging options, MYNN2.5 scheme for PBL options, and nudged wind components for nudged variable. With these optimal configurations, the model is then applied for simulations of higher vertical-level wind and for mapping the offshore wind resource in Cambodia. The offshore winds at 80 and 100 m above sea-level are found to be around 5-7 m/s over Cambodian EEZ. (C) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.