Global wind atlas

We are proud to announce the update of the World Bank ESMAP Global Wind Atlas project (GWA 3.0) which incorporates, among many other features, the latest global mesoscale data produced by Vortex; specially curated and designed to fit into the GWA downstream dataflow.

3km global and mesoscale data.

The new GWA 3.0 is powered by global 3km WRF downscaling driven by ERA5 Reanalysis and spanning the period 2009-2018. The brand new downscaled dataset provides a unique and comprehensive set of atmospheric conditions at very high spatial and vertical resolutions (3x3km2 grid size and more than 25 levels within the first 200m of height). The resulting data were processed to effectively initialise the DTU Wind Energy microscale downstream.

Global and 3km – an Olympic effort.

Vortex has dedicated a large part of our computing capacity over a nine-month period to scan the Earth with our WRF modelling system to produce tons of output data. The process has been split into more than 2400 tiles covering the complete onshore domain with a 300km offshore extension.

Welcoming ERA5 to the GWA.

ERA5 is the latest and most advanced climate reanalysis project developed by ECMWF and takes advantage of probably the best global weather operational model skeleton, latest assimilation data and technology, and enhanced spatial and vertical resolution. ERA5 is part of the EU funded Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), implemented by ECMWF on behalf of the European Commission, which is leading the new generation of climate services and climate data provision.

Supermap.

With this release, we have completed a successful modelling challenge promoted by the WB ESMAP initiative, allowing us to put our wind resource modelling technology to good use to build a reference gateway – smartly designed by Nazka maps – to unveil the potential wind energy potential across the more than 150,000 km2 that the GWA 3.0 is mapping.

Is this the end of the story? Definitely not. Vortex is ready for more challenges, right @EMAP team?