ANALYSIS OF HISTORICAL WIND SPEEDS OVER THE CONTIGUOUS US
Focus:
This research is focused on quantifying past wind climates based on in situ observations, reanalysis data sets and Regional Climate Models.
Data sources:
|
Nature |
Abbreviation used herein |
Descriptive title |
Data period |
Resolution |
|
Observations |
NCDC-6421 |
Enhanced hourly wind station data for the contiguous US (Groisman, 2002) |
1973-2000 |
Individual stations |
|
Observations |
NCDC-DS3505 |
Daily surface observations (corrected to 10-m height by authors) |
1973-2005 |
Individual stations |
|
Reanalysis |
NCEP-1 |
1948-2006 |
~2.5×2.5º |
|
|
Reanalysis |
NCEP-2 |
1979-2006 |
~1.9×1.9º |
|
|
Reanalysis |
ERA-40 |
1973-2001 |
~2.5×2.5º |
|
|
Reanalysis |
NARR |
North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR-A) |
1979-2006 |
~32×32km |
|
Regional Climate Model |
MM5 |
MM5 (boundary conditions from NCEP-2) |
1979-2006 |
~50×50km |
|
Regional Climate Model |
RSM |
Regional Spectral Model (boundary conditions from NCEP-2) |
1979-2006 |
~50×50km |
|
** Note: The 3 high-resolution data sets take a while to load - please be patient. |
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Click on a data source to go to a map from which you can obtain estimates of mean wind speed (m/s) for the period of data overlap (1979-2000) and the trend in the annual mean wind speed (%/yr) for the entire data record. If the trend column is empty the temporal trend is not statistically significant.
Note:
All wind speeds pertain to a nominal height of 10 m a.g.l.
Thanks to:
Funding from the National Science Foundation and the Nordic Energy Research
The people who have worked with us:
J.T. Schoof: ex. Indiana University, now at the University of Southern Illinois
D.T. Young: ex. Indiana University, now at Kings College London
G.S. Takle: Iowa State University
T. Lindley (Ph.D. candidate), Indiana University