Wind climates in northern Europe

Wind climates in northern Europe

This research is focused on quantifying past wind climates and developing robust projections for future conditions using both empirical downscaling and dynamical downscaling tools. If you use data presented on this site please acknowledge the source (S.C. Pryor, Cornell University).

Research results:

Map: Click here for a map of the study area showing the resolution of the Regional Climate Model used and the stations used in the empirical downscaling.

Empirical downscaling: Here are results from the empirical downscaling. Note: All empirical downscaling results pertain to the A2 emission scenario. Move the pointer over a station to obtain basic statistics of the wind climate for the historical period 1982-2000, downscaled results for 1982-2000, downscaled results for 2046-2065 and downscaled results for 2081-2100. Here are results from downscaling of; BCCR-BCM2.0, BCC-CM1, CGCM3.1, CNRM-CM3, ECHAM5/MPI-OM, GFDL-CM2.0, GISS-ModelE20/Russell, IPSL-CM4, MIROC3.2(medium resolution), and MRI-CGCM2.3.2.

Dynamical downscaling: Here are results from the dynamical downscaling. Note: All dynamical downscaling was conducted using the Rossby Centre Regional Climate Model (RCAO). Results are presented for two sets of simulations – one using boundary conditions from the ECHAM4/OPCY3 and the other using HadAM3. Additionally results from two emission scenarios are presented; A2 and B2. Move the pointer over a grid cell to obtain basic statistics of the wind climate for 1961-1990 and 2071-2100. Here are results from downscaling of; ECHAM4 and HadAM3.

Data sources:

In situ wind data were obtained from the National Climate Data Center.

GCM output used is taken from data portal developed for the 4th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and hosted by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory which is supported by the Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy.

All data (wind speeds and energy density) pertain to a nominal height of 10 m a.g.l.

Funding:

Results shown here were generated with support from Nordic Energy Research via the Climate and Energy Project and the US National Science Foundation (project # 0618364 and 1019603).