The Climatology and Trend of Surface Wind Speed over Antarctica and the Southern Ocean and the Implication to Wind Energy Application

Lejiang Yu,Shiyuan Zhong,Bo Sun

doi:10.3390/atmos11010108

Abstract

Surface wind trends and variability over Antarctica and the Southern Ocean and their implications to wind energy in the region are analyzed using the gridded ERA-Interim reanalysis data between 1979 and 2017 and the Self-Organizing Map (SOM) technique. In general, surface winds are stronger over the coastal regions of East Antarctica and the Transantarctic Mountains and weaker over the Ross and Ronne ice shelves and the Antarctic Peninsula; and stronger in winter and weaker in summer. Winds in the southern Indian and Pacific Oceans and along coastal regions exhibit a strong interannual variability that appears to be correlated to the Antarctic Oscillation (AAO) index. A significantly positive trend in surface wind speeds is found across most regions and about 20% and 17% of the austral autumn and summer wind trends, respectively, and less than 1% of the winter and spring wind trends may be explained by the trends in the AAO index. Except for the Antarctic Peninsula, Ronne and Ross ice shelves, and small areas in the interior East Antarctica, most of the continent is found to be suitable for the development of wind power.

Highlights

As a clean, renewable energy resource, wind energy has been gaining attention in recent decades.Studies have identified many regions around the globe that are rich in wind energy resources both onshore [1,2,3,4,5,6] and offshore [7,8,9]
1, we further examine the contribution of the index to the trends in the seasonal seasonal surface wind speeds across the study domain
The trends trends and andinterannual interannualvariability variabilityininthe the surface wind speeds further examined using method with a Similar to the discussion above, the discussion below is organized by the Self-Organizing Map (SOM) method with a 3 × 3 grid

Summary

Introduction

Studies have identified many regions around the globe that are rich in wind energy resources both onshore [1,2,3,4,5,6] and offshore [7,8,9]. One continent that has vast regions of ample wind resources is Antarctica because of its unique geographical location and topography [10]. There has been, to our knowledge, a lack of study on wind resources over the entire Antarctic continent and adjacent oceans. The strong seasonal and spatial variability of the katabatic winds contributes greatly to the variations of the Antarctic surface wind field. Diagnostic models were used to infer surface wind fields over the Antarctic continent [17,18,19]. The proliferation in high-resolution numerical modeling in the late 20th century resulted in a significant improvement in our knowledge about the Atmosphere 2020, 11, 108; doi:10.3390/atmos11010108 www.mdpi.com/journal/atmosphere

Methods

Results

Conclusion