I would like to roughly map where wind speed may be higher due to morphometry in an alpine context. In QGis, using SAGA, I found the tool 'Wind Shelter Index' within the Terrain Analysis - Morphometry section. I also found the Wind effect index. My question is: How do I read the results? I've quickly read a couple of papers where I've learned a lot about the theory (snow distribution etc.), but on the other hand, I'm a bit confused. My 'wind effect' raster has values from 0.4 to 1.3, without any measuring unit, so I'm a bit lost. I'll read again the papers but I would be really thankful if you can suggest me anything, from papers to tools or R packages. Thanks a lot!
From SAGA help:
The 'Wind Effect' is a dimensionless index. Values below 1 indicate wind shadowed areas whereas values above 1 indicate areas exposed to wind, all with regard to the specified wind direction. Wind direction, i.e. the direction into which the wind blows, might be either constant or variying in space, if a wind direction grid is supplied.
The equations are described in https://esd.copernicus.org/articles/6/61/2015/
Regards, Grzegorz