Low-Level Wind Forecast over the La Plata River Region with a Mesoscale Boundary-Layer Model Forced by Regional Operational Forecasts

Abstract

A mesoscale boundary-layer model (BLM) is used for running 12-h low-level wind forecasts for the La Plata River region. Several experiments are performed with different boundary conditions that include operational forecasts of the Eta/CPTEC model, local observations, as well as a combination of both. The BLM wind forecasts are compared to the surface wind observations of five weather stations during the period November 2003–April 2004. Two accuracy measures are used: the hit rate or percentage of cases with agreement in the wind direction sector, and the root-mean-squared error (RMSE) of the horizontal wind components. The BLM surface wind forecasts are always more accurate, since its averaged hit rate is three times greater and its averaged RMSE is one half smaller than the Eta forecasts. Despite the large errors in the surface winds displayed by the Eta forecasts, its 850 hPa winds and surface temperature forecasts are able to drive the BLM model to obtain surface winds forecasts with smaller errors than the Eta model. An additional experiment demonstrates that the advantage of using the BLM model for forecasting low-level winds over the La Plata River region is the result of a more appropriate definition of the land–river surface temperature contrast. The particular formulation that the BLM model has for the geometry of the river coasts is fundamental for resolving the smaller scale details of the low-level local circulation. The main conclusion of the study is that operational low-level wind forecasts for the La Plata River region can be improved by running the BLM model forced by the Eta operational forecasts.