Estimation of the Surface Wind Speeds and Directions at Arbitrary Locations

- A Spatial Interpolation Method for Flat Surface -

Abstract

When the flame propagation of a forest fire is estimated, it is important to quickly know the wind speed and direction at the place where the fire is broken out. This study investigated an estimation method for the wind speed and direction at AMeDAS stations using the wind data observed at the weather stations. From this study, it is found that the averaging method with the weight of the inverse of the square of the distances between the AMeDAS and the weather stations gives reasonable estimates. The targeted areas of this study are Kanto and Shizuoka areas. The data with the wind speed of more than 10 m/s in March and April, 2001, are used as the weather data. In spite of the simplicity of the method, it can reasonably estimate the wind at an arbitrary location on the flat land using the wind data observed at the adjacent weather stations. This is an advantage of the method.