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This is the first of two papers that document the creation of the New European Wind Atlas (NEWA). It describes the sensitivity analysis and evaluation procedures that formed the basis for choosing the final setup of the mesoscale model simulations of the wind atlas. The suitable combination of model setup and parameterizations, bound by practical constraints, was found for simulating the climatology of the wind field at turbine-relevant heights with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Initial WRF model sensitivity experiments compared the wind climate generated by using two commonly used planetary boundary layer schemes and were carried out over several regions in Europe. They confirmed that the most significant differences in annual mean wind speed at 100 m a.g.l. (above ground level) mostly coincide with areas of high surface roughness length and not with the location of the domains or maximum wind speed. Then an ensemble of more than 50 simulations with different setups for a single year was carried out for one domain covering northern Europe for which tall mast observations were available. We varied many different parameters across the simulations, e.g. model version, forcing data, various physical parameterizations, and the size of the model domain. These simulations showed that although virtually every parameter change affects the results in some way, significant changes in the wind climate in the boundary layer are mostly due to using different physical parameterizations, especially the planetary boundary layer scheme, the representation of the land surface, and the prescribed surface roughness length. Also, the setup of the simulations, such as the integration length and the domain size, can considerably influence the results. We assessed the degree of similarity between winds simulated by the WRF ensemble members and the observations using a suite of metrics, including the Earth Mover's Distance (EMD), a statistic that measures the distance between two probability distributions. The EMD was used to diagnose the performance of each ensemble member using the full wind speed and direction distribution, which is essential for wind resource assessment. We identified the most realistic ensemble members to determine the most suitable configuration to be used in the final production run, which is fully described and evaluated in the second part of this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coastal discontinuity imposes strong signals to the atmospheric conditions over the sea that are important for wind-energy potential. Here, we provide a comprehensive investigation of the influence of the land-sea transition on wind conditions in the Baltic Sea using data from an offshore meteorological tower, data from a wind farm, and mesoscale model simulations. Results show a strong induced stable stratification when warm inland air flows over a colder sea. This stratification demonstrates a strong diurnal pattern and is most pronounced in spring when the land-sea temperature difference is greatest. The strength of the induced stratification is proportional to this parameter and inversely proportional to fetch. Extended periods of stable stratification lead to increased influence of inertial oscillations and increased frequency of low-level jets. Furthermore, heterogeneity in land-surface roughness along the coastline is found to produce pronounced horizontal streaks of reduced wind speeds that under stable stratification are advected several tens of kilometres over the sea. The intensity and length of the streaks dampen as atmospheric stability decreases. Increasing sea surface roughness leads to a deformation of these streaks with increasing fetch. Slight changes in wind direction shift the path of these advective streaks, which when passing through an offshore wind farm are found to produce large fluctuations in wind power. Implications of these coastline effects on the accurate modelling and forecasting of offshore wind conditions, as well as damage risk to the turbine, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]