Verifying Meteorological Station Wind Speed Data for Long-Term Resource Studies: The MIA Luqa Wind Databases at Malta

Abstract

Short-term wind measurements at a candidate wind turbine installation site strive to capture a fingerprint of candidate site wind conditions. Coupling this fingerprint with a historical data set from a nearby reference station enables the projection of the candidate site's longer-term wind characteristics. This paper focuses on the historic wind datasets compiled by the Meteorological Office of Malta International Airport, Luqa. As the only station having in excess of 20 years of wind speed and direction data, this database is significant and useful as a long-term reference station. The position of the Maltese island makes this station a useful node for weather-related data and for validation of computational tools in the central Mediterranean region. The focus of this paper is primarily on a period when the station and measurement equipment went through an upgrade and relocation. A downward shift of 0.75 ms−1 in the wind speed was identified. The analyses presented in this paper identify and test hypotheses for this shift including aspects such as the station's relocation, the use of new sensors, using a different monitoring structure type and other factors.