Comparative Study and Trend Analysis of Regional Climate Models and Reanalysis Wind Speeds at Rameshwaram

Climate change may affect wind patterns. It will impact wind energy generation. Climate models will help to assess how wind speed is affected by climate change. Climate models have different boundary conditions, and the forcing variables lead to the uncertainty of data. The present study provides a comparison of six regional climate models (RCMs) with reanalysis data (ERA-Interim) and validated with measured data at Rameshwaram. Further quantile mapping technique has been used for the removal of bias from RCM models. Results show that all six RCMs have lesser correlation (~0.50), high bias (~1.4 m/s) with measured data before quantile mapping. However, after the quantile mapping with reanalysis data, the RCMs achieved a higher correlation (~0.63) and less bias (~0.45). Further, the trends of wind speeds for all RCMs have been analysed and checked the significance of trends with the t-test. Results show that wind speed trends are increasing with 0.03 m/s/decade at Rameshwaram.