WAsP Flow Model

WAsP includes flow models for horizontal and vertical extrapolation of wind climates. The models includes effects on the flow from terrain inhomogeneity and from the structure of the atmospheric surface layer.

../_images/up_down.png

Illustration of the generalization (up arrow) and downscaling (down arrow) which is the key idea of extrapolation of wind climates in WAsP

Core to the flow extrapolation in WAsP is the two steps illustrated in the figure above:
  1. Generalization

  2. Downscaling

Generalization is the process of “removing” local terrain and surface layer effects from the observed wind climate and instead “generalizing” the wind climate to a number of “standard” conditions (of surface roughness and height above ground).

Downscaling is the reverse process where local terrain and surface layer effects are “added” to the generalized wind climate to obtain a new predicted wind climate at the desired location.

A generalized wind climate tries to be representative of a larger area, an observed and prediced wind climate is representative only of a specific location.

To illustrate the flow model, we will import pywasp, windkit, and some other commonly used libraries.

In [1]: import numpy as np

In [2]: import xarray as xr

In [3]: import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

In [4]: import windkit as wk

In [5]: import pywasp as pw

We will also use terrain and wind data from the Santa Luzia site.

In [6]: bwc = wk.read_bwc("./source/tutorials/data/SerraSantaLuzia.omwc", crs="EPSG:4326")

In [7]: bwc = wk.spatial.reproject(bwc, to_crs="EPSG:32629")

In [8]: elev_map = wk.read_vector_map(
   ...:     "source/tutorials/data/SerraSantaLuzia.map",
   ...:     map_type="elevation",
   ...:     crs="EPSG:32629",
   ...: )
   ...: 

In [9]: lc_map, lc_tbl = wk.read_vector_map(
   ...:     "source/tutorials/data/SerraSantaLuzia.map",
   ...:     map_type="roughness",
   ...:     crs="EPSG:32629",
   ...: )
   ...: 

In [10]: topo_map = pw.wasp.TopographyMap(
   ....:     elev_map,
   ....:     lc_map,
   ....:     lc_tbl
   ....: )
   ....: 

To get a sense of the topography at the site, we will plot the elevation and roughness maps. It easiest to visualize the roughness data as a raster map, because the vector map version is roughness-change lines, which can be hard to detect patterns from. So, we will convert to raster data first, and then plot it. First the elevation:

In [11]: elev_raster = pw.io.vectormap_to_rastermap(elev_map, res=200)

In [12]: elev_raster.plot()
../_images/serra_elev.png

Second, the surface roughness:

In [13]: z0_map = wk._vectormap_helpers._landcover_to_z0(lc_map, lc_tbl)

In [14]: z0_raster = pw.io.vectormap_to_rastermap(z0_map, res=200)

In [15]: np.log1p(z0_raster).plot()  # log(z0+1) to better see patterns
../_images/serra_rgh.png

Note

The function to convert a land cover map to a roughness map wk._vectormap_helpers._landcover_to_z0 is considered experiemental for now, and is not currently part of the offical WindKit API.

From the maps we see flat land with low roughness along the western edge covered by ocean. Inland, to the northwest, and to the northeast we see two hills with lower roughness on the top. In the south, low surface roughness and flat elevation reveals a river wedged into the land, stretching from west to east.

Terrain effects

Now that we have created a TopographyMap and inspected the topography at the site, let us start modeling terrain effects using the WAsP model.

First, we will define output locations by using windkit.spatial.create_dataset(). In this case, we define a 41x41x1 cuboid-shaped output grid (1681 total points). Second, we call TopographyMap.get_site_effects() to get the terrain effects at the output locations. We also have to tell how many sectors we want to use (we use 12 in this case).

In [16]: dx, dy = 300, 300

In [17]: nx, ny = 51, 51

In [18]: x0, y0 = 510500, 4613500

In [19]: steps = np.arange(nx)*dx

In [20]: x = x0 + steps

In [21]: y = y0 + steps

In [22]: xmin, xmax = x.min(), x.max()

In [23]: ymin, ymax = y.min(), y.max()

In [24]: output_locs =  wk.create_dataset(
   ....:     west_east=x,
   ....:     south_north=y,
   ....:     height=[50],
   ....:     crs="EPSG:32629",
   ....:     struct="cuboid",
   ....: )
   ....: 

In [25]: site_effects = topo_map.get_site_effects(output_locs, nsecs=12)

In [26]: print(site_effects)
<xarray.Dataset>
Dimensions:              (height: 1, south_north: 51, west_east: 51, sector: 12)
Coordinates:
  * height               (height) int64 50
  * south_north          (south_north) int64 4613500 4613800 ... 4628200 4628500
  * west_east            (west_east) int64 510500 510800 ... 525200 525500
    crs                  int8 0
  * sector               (sector) float64 0.0 30.0 60.0 ... 270.0 300.0 330.0
    sector_ceil          (sector) float64 15.0 45.0 75.0 ... 285.0 315.0 345.0
    sector_floor         (sector) float64 345.0 15.0 45.0 ... 255.0 285.0 315.0
Data variables: (12/14)
    z0meso               (sector, south_north, west_east) float32 0.001509 .....
    slfmeso              (sector, south_north, west_east) float32 0.2933 ... 1.0
    displ                (sector, south_north, west_east) float32 0.0 ... 0.0
    user_def_speedups    (sector, height, south_north, west_east) float32 1.0...
    orographic_speedups  (sector, height, south_north, west_east) float32 0.9...
    obstacle_speedups    (sector, height, south_north, west_east) float32 1.0...
    ...                   ...
    orographic_turnings  (sector, height, south_north, west_east) float32 -0....
    obstacle_turnings    (sector, height, south_north, west_east) float32 0.0...
    roughness_turnings   (sector, height, south_north, west_east) float32 0.0...
    site_elev            (south_north, west_east) float32 0.1 0.1 ... 781.0
    rix                  (south_north, west_east) float32 0.0 0.0 ... 0.1406
    dirrix               (sector, south_north, west_east) float32 0.0 ... 0.0
Attributes:
    Conventions:      CF-1.8
    history:          2024-02-16T10:49:50:\twindkit==0.7.1.dev17+ga2ef68d\t w...
    Package name:     windkit
    Package version:  0.7.1.dev17+ga2ef68d
    Creation date:    2024-02-16T10:49:54
    Object type:      Topographic effects
    author:           DTU CI Config
    author_email:     pywasp@dtu.dk
    institution:      DTU Wind
    title:            WAsP site effects

Note

pywasp.wasp.TopographyMap.get_site_effects() uses 1x runs in your PyWAsP subscription

The site effects are a xarray.Dataset with many variables (see e.g. Data Structures for a full list), including speed-up effects and turnings from the orographic model and the roughness model. It also holds variables “z0meso”, the effective upstream sector-wise roughness at each location, and “slfmeso”, the effective sector-wise sea-to-land fraction (1 being land, 0 being ocean). The variable “rix”, is the ruggedness index, which is a number between 0 and 1, signifying the orographic complexity of the site at each point (0 being not very complex).

We can plot the terrain effects to get a better idea of their characteristics at the site. First, we will plot the orographic speed-up for one wind direction (210 degrees in this case). To show the wind direction in the map, a useful plotting function is defined for plotting the direction as an arrow on the map.

In [27]: def plot_arrow(x=0.03, y=0.03, ws=0.08, wd=210, ax=None):
   ....:     """ helper function to plot the wind direction as an arrow """
   ....:     if ax is None:
   ....:         ax = plt.gca()
   ....:     ax.arrow(
   ....:         x,
   ....:         y,
   ....:         *wk.wind_vectors(0.08, 210),
   ....:         transform=ax.transAxes,
   ....:         head_width=0.04,
   ....:         head_length=0.1,
   ....:         alpha=0.8,
   ....:         fc='k',
   ....:         ec='k'
   ....:     )
   ....:     return ax
   ....: 

In [28]: fig, ax = plt.subplots()

In [29]: ax.set(xlim=(xmin, xmax), ylim=(ymin, ymax));

In [30]: (
   ....:     site_effects["orographic_speedups"]
   ....:     .sel(sector=210, height=50)  # choose sector and height to plot
   ....:     .plot.contourf(vmin=0.5, vmax=1.5, cmap="RdBu_r",  ax=ax, add_colorbar=True)
   ....: );
   ....: 

In [31]: plot_arrow(x=0.03, y=0.03, ws=0.08, wd=210, ax=ax);

In [32]: elev_raster.plot.contour(levels=16, cmap="gray", ax=ax, add_colorbar=False);
../_images/oro_speedups_example.png

As expected, we see speed-ups on up-slope regions and slow-downs on down-slope regions. Next, we can take a look at the orographic turning:

In [33]: fig, ax = plt.subplots(1, 1)

In [34]: ax.set(xlim=(xmin, xmax), ylim=(ymin, ymax));

In [35]: (
   ....:     site_effects["orographic_turnings"]
   ....:     .sel(sector=210, height=50)
   ....:     .plot.contourf(center=0, ax=ax, add_colorbar=True)
   ....: );
   ....: 

In [36]: plot_arrow(x=0.03, y=0.03, ws=0.08, wd=210, ax=ax);

In [37]: elev_raster.plot.contour(levels=16, cmap="gray", ax=ax, add_colorbar=False);
../_images/oro_turnings_example.png

Now, let us plot the roughness speed-up:

In [38]: fig, ax = plt.subplots(1, 1)

In [39]: ax.set(xlim=(xmin, xmax), ylim=(ymin, ymax));

In [40]: (
   ....:     site_effects["roughness_speedups"]
   ....:     .sel(sector=210, height=50)
   ....:     .plot.contourf(vmin=0.8, vmax=1.2, cmap="RdBu_r", ax=ax, add_colorbar=True)
   ....: );
   ....: 

In [41]: plot_arrow(x=0.03, y=0.03, ws=0.08, wd=210, ax=ax);

In [42]: np.log1p(z0_raster).plot.contour(levels=16, cmap="gray", ax=ax, add_colorbar=False);
../_images/rgh_speedups_example.png

We can see large areas of slow-down of the flow as it transitions from low roughness over the sea to higher surface roughness over land.

Generalization

To generalize a observed/binned wind climate, generalize() is used:

In [43]: gwc = pw.wasp.generalize(bwc, topo_map)

In [44]: print(gwc)
<xarray.Dataset>
Dimensions:        (point: 1, sector: 12, gen_roughness: 5, gen_height: 5)
Coordinates:
    height         (point) float64 25.3
    south_north    (point) float64 4.621e+06
    west_east      (point) float64 5.147e+05
    crs            int8 0
  * sector         (sector) float64 0.0 30.0 60.0 90.0 ... 270.0 300.0 330.0
    sector_ceil    (sector) float64 15.0 45.0 75.0 105.0 ... 285.0 315.0 345.0
    sector_floor   (sector) float64 345.0 15.0 45.0 75.0 ... 255.0 285.0 315.0
  * gen_roughness  (gen_roughness) float64 0.0 0.03 0.1 0.4 1.5
  * gen_height     (gen_height) int64 10 25 50 100 250
Dimensions without coordinates: point
Data variables:
    A              (sector, gen_height, gen_roughness, point) float32 5.69 .....
    k              (sector, gen_height, gen_roughness, point) float32 1.717 ....
    wdfreq         (sector, gen_height, gen_roughness, point) float32 0.06491...
Attributes:
    Conventions:      CF-1.8
    history:          2024-02-16T10:49:48:\twindkit==0.7.1.dev17+ga2ef68d\tcr...
    wasp_header:      SerraSantaluzia
    Package name:     windkit
    Package version:  0.7.1.dev17+ga2ef68d
    Creation date:    2024-02-16T10:49:48
    Object type:      Binned Wind Climate
    author:           DTU CI Config
    author_email:     pywasp@dtu.dk
    institution:      DTU Wind
    title:            Generalized wind climate

The result is a Generalized Wind Climate, which contains weibull parameters for a number of surface roughnesses and heights (prefixed with _gen to signify that these are conditions in the “generalization space”).

Note

The gen_heights and gen_roughnesses classes should be set to capture the characteristics at the site as well as possible. It is recommended to select heights that cover all heights one wishes to predicted, and to include specific heights of interest as standalone classes. The same goes for the surface roughness classes.

Note

pywasp.wasp.generalize() uses 1x runs in your PyWAsP subscription

Downscaling

To downscale a GWC to the desired output locations, using pre-calculated site_effects, downscale() is used:

In [45]: pwc = pw.wasp.get_wasp_down(gwc, site_effects, genwc_interp="nearest")

In [46]: print(pwc)
<xarray.Dataset>
Dimensions:       (height: 1, south_north: 51, west_east: 51, sector: 12)
Coordinates:
  * height        (height) int64 50
  * south_north   (south_north) int64 4613500 4613800 ... 4628200 4628500
  * west_east     (west_east) int64 510500 510800 511100 ... 525200 525500
  * sector        (sector) float64 0.0 30.0 60.0 90.0 ... 270.0 300.0 330.0
    crs           int8 0
    sector_ceil   (sector) float64 15.0 45.0 75.0 105.0 ... 285.0 315.0 345.0
    sector_floor  (sector) float64 345.0 15.0 45.0 75.0 ... 255.0 285.0 315.0
Data variables:
    A             (sector, height, south_north, west_east) float32 6.602 ... ...
    k             (sector, height, south_north, west_east) float32 1.986 ... ...
    wdfreq        (sector, height, south_north, west_east) float32 0.06397 .....
    site_elev     (south_north, west_east) float32 0.1 0.1 0.1 ... 773.6 781.0
Attributes:
    Conventions:      CF-1.8
    history:          2024-02-16T10:49:50:\twindkit==0.7.1.dev17+ga2ef68d\t w...
    Package name:     windkit
    Package version:  0.7.1.dev17+ga2ef68d
    Creation date:    2024-02-16T10:49:59
    Object type:      Weibull Wind Climate
    author:           DTU CI Config
    author_email:     pywasp@dtu.dk
    institution:      DTU Wind
    title:            WAsP site effects

The prediced wind climate is a weibull wind climate, containing sector-wise weibull parameters for the desired locations.

To downscale without pre-calculating the site effects, pw.wasp.downscale() can be used instead:

In [47]: pwc = pw.wasp.downscale(gwc, topo_map, output_locs, genwc_interp="nearest")

Note

pywasp.wasp.downscale() uses 1x runs in your PyWAsP subscription

One-step extrapolation

For direct horizontal and vertical extrapolation of wind climates, wherein the generalization and downscaling is done in a single call, the generalize_and_downscale() can be used.

In [48]: pwc = pw.wasp.generalize_and_downscale(output_locs, bwc, topo_map)

Note

pywasp.wasp.generalize_and_downscale() uses 2x runs in your PyWAsP subscription

WAsP Model Configuration

When running WAsP through PyWAsP, there are a number of parameters that can be set through the conf argument to the functions: TopographyMap.get_site_effects(), generalize(), get_wasp_down(), and downscale(). The conf input is a Config object contains the model parameters, and is set by default to correspond to the WAsP GUI version 12.8, using the latest version of WAsP and a set of pre-defined parameters for the terrain and climate models.

To use a previous version of WAsP or to fine tune the model parameters, we can create an instance of the Config class, which then can be passed as an argument to the functions:

In [49]: conf = pw.wasp.Config("WAsP_12.7")  # Use a parameter-set from a previous WAsP version.

In [50]: pwc = pw.wasp.generalize_and_downscale(
   ....:     output_locs,
   ....:     bwc,
   ....:     topo_map,
   ....:     generalize_kwargs={"conf": conf},
   ....:     downscale_kwargs={"conf": conf},
   ....: )
   ....: 

The Config object can be initialized with a str, as above, which uses parameters from a specific version of WAsP:

  • “WAsP_11.4”: WAsP 11 profile model using c_g=1.65 and powerlaw estimation for reversal height. Classic terrain analysis.

  • “WAsP_12.6”: WAsP 12 profile model with c_g solved by iteration and dA/dmu set such that it corresponds with the old profile model. Classic terarin analysis

  • “WAsP_12.7”: WAsP 12 profile model, as version 12.6 but including baroclinicity. Spider terrain analysis.

  • “WAsP_12.8”: WAsP 12 profile model, including sectorwise stability and baroclinicity as described in mesoclimate class (Profile model 3); terrain analysis 1

Initializing the object with no parameters, means the default, “WAsP_12.8”, is used. Once initialized, the object can also be further modified by manually chaging specific parameters.

The Config class sets parameters for the terrain and the climate WAsP models. An instance of Config has two properties, climate and terrain, which are instances of Climate and Terrain. The detail of the set values can be check as follows:

config = pywasp.wasp.Config()
config.climate
"""
Index  Parameter        Current       Default       Description
                        value         value
=====  ===============  ============  ===========   ==================================================
    10  a0                   1.800000  1.8           A0  parameter in geostrophic drag law under neutral conditions
    11  b0                   4.500000  4.5           B0 parameter in neutral geostrophic drag law
    56  rms_hfx_land       100.000000  100           Root mean square of heat flux over land
    57  rms_hfx_water       30.000000  30            Rms Heatflux over water
    58  off_hfx_land       -40.000000  -40           Offset (mean) heatflux over land
    59  off_hfx_water       -8.000000  -8            Offset (mean) heatflux over water
    60  stab_lim_land        1.000000  1             Factor on geostrophic height for stab envelope limiting
    77  stab_lim_water       1.000000  1             Factor on geostrophic height (sea) for stability envelope limiting"""

config.terrain
"""
Index  Parameter        Current       Default       Description
                        value         value
=====  ===============  ============  ===========   ==================================================
    31  decay_length     10000.000000  10000         Decay-length for importance of roughness relative to distance from center
    67  max_no_rgh          10.000000  10            Max number of roughness changes per sector.""​"

The configuration values stored as key - value pairs and can be accessed or set individually by index

config.climate[10] = 3.6
config.climate
"""
Index  Parameter        Current       Default       Description
                        value         value
=====  ===============  ============  ===========   ==================================================
    10  a0                   3.600000  1.8           A0  parameter in geostrophic drag law under neutral conditions
    11  b0                   4.500000  4.5           B0 parameter in neutral geostrophic drag law
    56  rms_hfx_land       100.000000  100           Root mean square of heat flux over land
    57  rms_hfx_water       30.000000  30            Rms Heatflux over water
    58  off_hfx_land       -40.000000  -40           Offset (mean) heatflux over land
    59  off_hfx_water       -8.000000  -8            Offset (mean) heatflux over water
    60  stab_lim_land        1.000000  1             Factor on geostrophic height for stab envelope limiting
    77  stab_lim_water       1.000000  1             Factor on geostrophic height (sea) for stability envelope limiting"""

It is also possible to set a combination of values to define a climate profile model and a terrain analysis.

climate.set_profile_model(0)
terrain.set_terrain_analysis(1)

For further details of the above, check the API Reference Config.