Short-Term wind forecast for space RIDER mission at the Kourou landing site

This work describes a system to support the Space RIDER mission by providing a characterization of the wind field in the area of Kourou, French Guiana, by means of a numerical weather forecast model, specifically the weather research and forecasting (WRF) model. The study primarily aims to assess the ability of the numerical forecast model to reproduce the wind fields within the area of interest for a period of one year. The validation process compares the simulated vertical wind profiles and surface wind with measures obtained from the closest available data sources: radiosonde, ground weather stations and a weather measurement tower. The results achieved highlight that the in-situ observations are consistent (with each other) and their use in the validation process emphasizes that the adopted WRF model, with the selected configuration, confidently predicts the wind speed, within an error range of 3 m/s. Validation concerning the wind direction is still ongoing.