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Shapes of annual frequency distributions of wind speed observed on high meteorological masts

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Abstract

Annual wind distributions from six masts are used to investigate the annual variability of hourly-average wind. A variability extremum occurs at the height where the average diurnal cycle of wind reverses its phase from a nocturnal minimum to a nocturnal maximum. A simple profile model shows that in non-complex terrain, this reversal height varies approximately between 50 m at coasts and 90 m inland. The Weibull distribution shape factor k has a maximum at the reversal height, and with decreasing height, k decreases approximately as a linear function of height. Therefore estimation of wind distribution shape from surface data is possible in the surface layer. In the upper PBL, however, such estimation is not very feasible, because no simple methods are available to estimate the reversal height from routine surface observations.

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  1. Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, De Bilt, The Netherlands

    Jon Wieringa

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  1. Jon Wieringa
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Also: Dept. of Applied Physics, Technical University, Delft, Netherlands.

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Wieringa, J. Shapes of annual frequency distributions of wind speed observed on high meteorological masts. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 47, 85–110 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00122324

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