Wind speed climatology and trends for Australia, 1975-2006: Capturing the stilling phenomenon and comparison with near-surface reanalysis output

摘要: [1] Near-surface wind speeds (u) measured by terrestrial anemometers show declines (a ‘stilling’) at a range of midlatitude sites, but two gridded u datasets NCEP/NCAR reanalysis output and surface-pressure-based model) have not reproduced the stilling observed Australian stations. We developed Australia-wide 0.01 resolution daily grids interpolating measurements from an expanded anemometer network for 1975–2006. These new represented magnitude spatialvariability trends, whereas systems (NCEP/NCAR, NCEP/DOE ERA40) essentially did not, even when minimising sea-breeze impact. For these grids, Australianaveraged trend 1975–2006 was 0.009 m s 1 (agreeing with earlier site-based studies) over 88% land-surface. This dataset can be used in numerous environmental applications, including benchmarking general circulation models to improve representation key parameters that govern estimation. The methodology implemented here applied globally. Citation: McVicar, T. R., G. Van Niel, L. Li, M. Roderick, D. P. Rayner, Ricciardulli, R. J. Donohue (2008), Wind speed climatology trends Australia, 1975 – 2006: Capturing phenomenon comparison near-surface output, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L20403,