Classification of the Large-scale Atmospheric Circulation over the Caribbean
Abstract
This work presents an automated method for classifying large-scale atmospheric circulation types over the Caribbean with preliminary results. The development of a wind map for the Caribbean island state of Trinidad and Tobago showing the wind resources is best accomplished through numerical weather prediction simulations of the past climate. The surface winds are the primary variables for wind power studies and are mainly driven by the large-scale circulation. In order to determine the annual mean wind power over Trinidad and Tobago, the frequency and annual cycle of the large-scale wind patterns over the Caribbean region are required. This requires a catalogue of the wind patterns over the region. However, no such catalogue currently exists. Large-scale data is taken from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction Final Analysis at a 1 degree x 1 degree resolution. The automated classification scheme, a two-step clustering procedure, was performed on the daily 850 hPa wind vectors for a 10 year period from 2000 to 2009. Seven circulation types provide a sufficient description of the different flow patterns in the Caribbean. These circulation types exhibit seasonality and interannual variability through their frequency of occurrence on monthly, seasonal, and annual time-scales. The implications for the catalogue of circulation types developed here are briefly discussed for wind resource mapping applications and climate change studies.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2012
- Bibcode:
- 2012AGUFM.A53J0276C
- Keywords:
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- 3309 ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES / Climatology;
- 3364 ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES / Synoptic-scale meteorology;
- 3373 ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES / Tropical dynamics