Wind Energy Exploration over the Atacama Desert: A Numerical Model–Guided Observational Program

Muñoz, Ricardo C.; Falvey, Mark; Arancibia, Mario; Astudillo, Valentina I.; Elgueta, Javier; Ibarra, Marcelo; Santana, Christian; Vásquez, Camila

doi:10.1175/bams-d-17-0019.1

Cited by 26 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…The upslope winds can reach high velocities, but the formation of pronounced dust plumes is suppressed by the steep rise of the Andes. During the night the circulation reverses, thus leading to down‐valley nocturnal winds (Munoz et al, ; Ruttlant et al, ; Jacques‐Coper et al, ; Munoz et al, ). These winds may be strong in stretched valleys and at the higher‐elevated slopes of the Andes, but are generally weak in the plains North of 22°S (see Munoz et al, , and our Figure c) where the main dust sources are located (Figure b).…”

Section: Study Area Data and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…During the night the circulation reverses, thus leading to down‐valley nocturnal winds (Munoz et al, ; Ruttlant et al, ; Jacques‐Coper et al, ; Munoz et al, ). These winds may be strong in stretched valleys and at the higher‐elevated slopes of the Andes, but are generally weak in the plains North of 22°S (see Munoz et al, , and our Figure c) where the main dust sources are located (Figure b). The potential dust sources in the study area are plotted based on the WRF terrestrial database as defined by Ginoux et al () and introduced as erodibility in the model.…”

Section: Study Area Data and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Wind observations are taken from the solar monitoring station Pampa Camarones (CAMA) installed at 18.8584°S and 70.2173°W in an altitude of 795 m asl (see Figure b). The station is part of a database built up in a series of measuring campaigns undertaken by Chile's energy agencies and funded mainly by the Chilean government (Munoz et al, ). Amongst other parameters, 10 min averaged wind speed in 5 m is provided for CAMA.…”

Section: Study Area Data and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The time period with 5 m wind data availability encompasses the years 2012 to 2017. Data for this and more than 40 other stations in the Atacama Desert are publically available at http://walker.dgf.uchile.cl/Mediciones/ (Munoz et al, ).…”

Section: Study Area Data and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Synoptic analysis and simulation of an unusual dust event over the Atacama Desert

Reyers

Hamidi

Shao

2019

Atmospheric Science Letters

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An unusual dust event over the Atacama Desert occurred in July 2016. Here, a synoptic study of the event is carried out using the NCEP FNL analysis data and WRF-chem simulations. The "zonalization" of a mid-tropospheric trough leads to the formation of a horizontal convergence band over the Northern Atacama and thus downward wind below it. As the descending air masses warm adiabatically, strong temperature contrasts to the colder air over the western Andes occur and intensify the down-valley winds, thus leading to extraordinary strong easterly winds in the Atacama. Simulations with WRF-chem indicate that these surface winds are sufficient for large-scale dust emission, and simulated dust plumes traveling far over the eastern South Pacific agree well with the observations. As the integrated dust load is comparable with the load observed in major dust sources of the world, our findings highlight the importance of such unusual events.

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Section: Study Area Data and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Study Area Data and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Study Area Data and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Study Area Data and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Synoptic analysis and simulation of an unusual dust event over the Atacama Desert

Reyers

Hamidi

Shao

2019

Atmospheric Science Letters

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“…The impact of ENSO on wind power production in the Coquimbo region was studied by Watts et al, 27 whereas the capacity to generate off‐shore wind power potential in south‐central Chile was first estimated by Mattar and Borvarán 28 using the WRF model and in situ observations. Recently, two studies performed sensitivity tests to PBL schemes and other options in Chile 29,30 . Muñoz et al 29 described a Chilean program aimed to gather observational and model information to support wind potential in Chile.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving wind speed forecasts from the Weather Research and Forecasting model at a wind farm in the semiarid Coquimbo region in central Chile

et al. 2020

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Accurate predictions of the wind field are key for better wind power forecasts. Wind speed forecasts from numerical weather models present differences with observations, especially in places with complex topography, such as the north of Chile. The present study has two goals: (a) to find the WRF model boundary layer (PBL) scheme that best reproduces the observations at the Totoral Wind Farm, located in the semiarid Coquimbo region in north‐central Chile, and (b) to use an artificial neural network (ANN) to postprocess wind speed forecasts from different model domains to analyze the sensitivity to horizontal resolution. The WRF model was run with three different PBL schemes (MYNN, MYNN3, and QNSE) for 2013. The WRF simulation with the QNSE scheme showed the best agreement with observations at the wind farm, and its outputs were postprocessed using two ANNs with two algorithms: backpropagation (BP) and particle swarm optimization (PSO). These two ANNs were applied to the innermost WRF domains with 3‐km (d03) and 1‐km (d04) horizontal resolutions. The root‐mean‐square errors (RMSEs) between raw WRF forecasts and observations for d03 and d04 were 2.7 and 2.4 ms−1, respectively. When both ANN models (BP and PSO) were applied to Domains d03 and d04, the RMSE decreased to values lower than 1.7 ms−1, and they showed similar performances, supporting the use of an ANN to postprocess a three‐nested WRF domain configuration to provide more accurate forecasts in advance for the region.

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Midday Boundary-Layer Collapse in the Altiplano Desert: The Combined Effect of Advection and Subsidence

Correa

Arellano

Ronda

et al. 2023

Boundary-Layer Meteorol

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Observations in the Altiplano region of the Atacama Desert show that the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) suddenly collapses at noon. This rapid decrease occurs simultaneously to the entrance of a thermally driven, regional flow that causes a rise in wind speed and a marked temperature decrease. We identify the main drivers that cause the observed ABL collapse by using a land–atmosphere model. The free atmosphere lapse rate and regional forcings, such as advection of mass and cold air as well as subsidence, are first estimated by combining observations from a comprehensive field campaign and a regional model. Then, to disentangle the ABL collapse, we perform a suite of numerical experiments with increasing level of complexity: from only considering local land–atmosphere interactions, to systematically including the regional contributions of mass advection, cold air advection, and subsidence. Our results show that non-local processes related to the arrival of the regional flow are the main factors explaining the boundary-layer collapse. The advection of a shallower boundary layer ($$\approx -250$$ ≈ - 250 m h$$^{-1}$$ - 1 at noon) causes an immediate decrease in the ABL height (h) at midday. This occurs simultaneously with the arrival of a cold air mass, which reaches a strength of $$\approx -4$$ ≈ - 4 K h$$^{-1}$$ - 1 at 1400 LT. These two external forcings become dominant over entrainment and surface processes that warm the atmosphere and increase h. As a consequence, the ABL growth is capped during the afternoon. Finally, a wind divergence of $$\approx 8 \times 10^{-5}$$ ≈ 8 × 10 - 5 s$$^{-1}$$ - 1 contributes to the collapse by causing subsidence motions over the ABL from 1200 LT onward. Our findings show the relevance of treating large and small-scale processes as a continuum to be able to understand the ABL dynamics.

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Wind Energy Exploration over the Atacama Desert: A Numerical Model–Guided Observational Program

Cited by 26 publications

References 17 publications

Synoptic analysis and simulation of an unusual dust event over the Atacama Desert

Synoptic analysis and simulation of an unusual dust event over the Atacama Desert

Improving wind speed forecasts from the Weather Research and Forecasting model at a wind farm in the semiarid Coquimbo region in central Chile

Midday Boundary-Layer Collapse in the Altiplano Desert: The Combined Effect of Advection and Subsidence

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