TY - JOUR
T1 - Europe's offshore winds assessed with synthetic aperture radar, ASCAT and WRF
AU - Hasager, Charlotte Bay
AU - Hahmann, Andrea N.
AU - Ahsbahs, Tobias Torben
AU - Karagali, Ioanna
AU - Sile, Tija
AU - Badger, Merete
AU - Mann, Jakob
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Europe's offshore wind resource mapping is part of the New European Wind Atlas (NEWA) international consortium effort. This study presents the results of analysis of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) ocean wind maps based on Envisat and Sentinel-1 with a brief description of the wind retrieval process and Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) ocean wind maps. The wind statistics at 10 and 100 m above mean sea level (a.m.s.l.) height using an extrapolation procedure involving simulated long-term stability over oceans are presented for both SAR and ASCAT. Furthermore, the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) offshore wind atlas of NEWA is presented. This has 3 km grid spacing with data every 30 min for 30 years from 1989 to 2018, while ASCAT has 12.5 km and SAR has 2 km grid spacing. Offshore mean wind speed maps at 100 m a.m.s.l. height from ASCAT, SAR, WRF and ERA5 at a European scale are compared. A case study on offshore winds near Crete compares SAR and WRF for flow from the north, west and all directions. The paper highlights the ability of the WRF model to simulate the overall European wind climatology and the near-coastal winds constrained by the resolution of the coastal topography in the WRF model simulations.
AB - Europe's offshore wind resource mapping is part of the New European Wind Atlas (NEWA) international consortium effort. This study presents the results of analysis of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) ocean wind maps based on Envisat and Sentinel-1 with a brief description of the wind retrieval process and Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) ocean wind maps. The wind statistics at 10 and 100 m above mean sea level (a.m.s.l.) height using an extrapolation procedure involving simulated long-term stability over oceans are presented for both SAR and ASCAT. Furthermore, the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) offshore wind atlas of NEWA is presented. This has 3 km grid spacing with data every 30 min for 30 years from 1989 to 2018, while ASCAT has 12.5 km and SAR has 2 km grid spacing. Offshore mean wind speed maps at 100 m a.m.s.l. height from ASCAT, SAR, WRF and ERA5 at a European scale are compared. A case study on offshore winds near Crete compares SAR and WRF for flow from the north, west and all directions. The paper highlights the ability of the WRF model to simulate the overall European wind climatology and the near-coastal winds constrained by the resolution of the coastal topography in the WRF model simulations.
UR - https://doi.org/10.11583/DTU.19704883.v1
U2 - 10.5194/wes-5-375-2020
DO - 10.5194/wes-5-375-2020
M3 - Journal article
SN - 2366-7443
VL - 5
SP - 375
EP - 390
JO - Wind Energy Science
JF - Wind Energy Science
IS - 1
ER -