High resolution atmospheric modelling using the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission land elevation data and a case study at Admiralty Bay, New Zealand

Atmospheric models such as the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) can be run at very high resolution to account for complex topography and small scale weather phenomena - often in support of sensitive operations. One problem with running these models at very high resolution is that the resolution of the standard terrain elevation data sets may be coarser than the model resolution. In the case of WRF, the standard data set that comes with the software is from the US Geological Survey which has a finest resolution of around 1 km. Therefore, any WRF configurations with horizontal resolution less than 1 km should consider this issue. This work looks at running WRF using NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) land elevation data set with resolution of 30m. It then considers a case study of running WRF over Admiralty Bay, New Zealand, where on- and off-loads of a semi-submersible oil rig on a heavy lift vessel (HLV) regularly take place. This delicate marine operation is highly sensitive to the wind speed profile, and the complex topography of the Bay make it a challenging place to model as well as provide meaningful operation guidance.