Potential usage of met mast datasets for climatic parameters monitoring in Tulcea County, Romania

Abstract

In order to evaluate the potential usage of high-accuracy climatic data measured continuously in the frame of newly developed renewable energy facilities in Romania for real-time local scale monitoring of climatic parameters, we used 2 years (May 2009 – May 2011) of in-situ climatic datasets measured at 7 met masts locations in Tulcea County. Realization of detailed thematic climatic maps afforded a more focused view of the spatial distribution and of the local patterns for air temperature, relative humidity and pressure, wind speed, direction and energy in the frame of the study site. On the basis of these preliminary results, we emphasize the great potential of similar in-situ real-time measured data to be integrated in the future, together with the data provided by meteorological stations, into complex databases. Their usefulness emerges from their capabilities of being integrated in specialized web-GIS platforms for real-time or nearreal-time monitoring of small spatial scale climatic parameters and of contributing to climatic models calibration, weather forecasting, feeding early warning systems for local climatic hazards or to rapid small spatial scale assessment of air pollutants dispersal following different scenarios of wind speed and direction. Further research and initiatives are necessary in the near future for the creation and implementation of these databases in order to become operational.