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Title: US East Coast synthetic aperture radar wind atlas for offshore wind energy

Journal Article · · Wind Energy Science (Online)
ORCiD logo [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [2];  [3];  [4]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. DTU Wind Energy, Risø, Roskilde (Denmark)
  2. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
  3. Global Ocean Associates, Alexandria, VA (United States)
  4. Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD (United States)
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We present the first synthetic aperture radar (SAR) offshore wind atlas of the US East Coast from Georgia to the Canadian border. Images from RADARSAT-1, Envisat, and Sentinel-1A/B are processed to wind maps using the geophysical model function (GMF) CMOD5.N. Extensive comparisons with 6008 collocated buoy observations of the wind speed reveal that biases of the individual systems range from -0.8 to 0.6 m s-1. Unbiased wind retrievals are crucial for producing an accurate wind atlas, and intercalibration of the SAR observations is therefore applied. Wind retrievals from the intercalibrated SAR observations show biases in the range of to -0.2 to 0.0 m s-1, while at the same time improving the root-mean-squared error from 1.67 to 1.46 m s-1. The intercalibrated SAR observations are, for the first time, aggregated to create a wind atlas at the height 10 m a.s.l. (above sea level). The SAR wind atlas is used as a reference to study wind resources derived from the Wind Integration National Dataset Toolkit (WTK), which is based on 7 years of modelling output from the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Comparisons focus on the spatial variation in wind resources and show that model outputs lead to lower coastal wind speed gradients than those derived from SAR. Areas designated for offshore wind development by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management are investigated in more detail; the wind resources in terms of the mean wind speed show spatial variations within each designated area between 0.3 and 0.5 m s-1 for SAR and less than 0.2m s-1 for the WTK. Our findings indicate that wind speed gradients and variations might be underestimated in mesoscale model outputs along the US East Coast.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Wind Energy Technologies Office (EE-4W)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1665882
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA-5000-77935; MainId:31844; UUID:e1b2283a-c19a-4c37-9f34-4e5daf9881ac; MainAdminID:18570
Journal Information:
Wind Energy Science (Online), Vol. 5, Issue 3; ISSN 2366-7451
Publisher:
European Wind Energy Association - CopernicusCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Cited By (1)

A SWOT Analysis for Offshore Wind Energy Assessment Using Remote-Sensing Potential journal September 2020

Figures / Tables (17)

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17 WIND ENERGY
offshore wind energy
synthetic aperture radar
wind atlas
WIND Toolkit