INFLUNCE OF THE TOPOGRAPHIC INTERPOLATION METHODS ON HIGH-RESOLUTION WIND FIELD SIMULATION WITH SRTM ELEVATION DATA OVER THE COASTAL AREA

High-resolution mesoscale meteorological modeling requires more accurate and higher resolution digital elevation model (DEM) data. Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) has created 90 m DEM for entire globe and that is freely available for meteorological modeling and environmental applications. In this research, the effects of the topographic interpolation methods on high-resolution wind field simulation in the coastal regions were quantitatively analyzed using Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model with SRTM data. Sensitivity experiments with three different interpolation schemes (four-point bilinear, sixteen-point overlapping parabolic and nearest neighbor interpolation methods) were preformed using SRTM. In WRF modeling with sixteen-point overlapping parabolic interpolation, the coastal line and some small islands show more clearly than other cases. The maximum height of inland is around 140 meters higher, while the minimum of sea height is about 80 meter lower. As it concerns the results of each scheme it seems that the sixteen-point overlapping parabolic scheme indicates the well agreement with observed surface wind data. Consequently, topographic changes due to interpolation methods can lead to the significant influence on mesoscale wind field simulation of WRF modeling.