Deterministic wind speed predictions with analog-based methods over complex topography

The performance of analog-based and Kalman filter (KF) postprocessing methods is tested in climatologically and topographically different regions for point-based wind speed predictions at 10 m above the ground. The results are generated using several configurations of the mesoscale numerical weather prediction model ALADIN. This study shows that deterministic analog-based predictions (ABPs) improve the correlation between predictions and measurements while reducing the forecast error, with respect to both the starting model predictions and the KF-based correction. While the KF generally outperforms the ABPs in bias reduction, the combination of the KF and analog approach can be similarly successful. In the coastal complex area, characterized with a larger frequency of strong wind, the ABPs are more successful in reducing the dispersion error than the KF. The application of the KF algorithm to the analogs in the so-called analog space (KFAS) is the least prone to standard deviation underestimation among the ABPs. All ABPs improve the prediction of larger-than-diurnal motions, and KFAS is superior among all ABPs in predicting alternating wind regimes on time scales shorter than a day. The ABPs better distinguish different wind speed categories in the coastal complex terrain by using a higher-resolution model input. Differences among starting model and postprocessed forecasts in other types of terrain are less pronounced.