Time Series
Our time series data sets allow you to better understand the wind resource and energy production potential of your site and to conduct measure-correlate-predict (MCP) analyses.

Time series come in two types:

All are provided in a universal CSV format that can be imported directly into a spreadsheet, Openwind, Windographer, and other plant design and resource assessment software.

Historical Time Series

Main Uses: Primarily in the Measure-Correlate-Predict (MCP) process to establish long-term wind conditions where short-term measurements are already available from a tower or remote-sensing system.

Data Description: Our historical time series are available in two varieties:

  • Global reanalysis data from three public sources, MERRA, MERRA-2, ERAI, ERA5, and CFSR, covering anywhere in the world and spanning 1979 to the present.
  • WRF data produced on our high-performance computing cluster using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model initialized by ERA5. Available anywhere in the world, and spanning from 10 years ago to the present.
    Sample Long Term Time Series
    Sample WRF
Typical Year VMM

Main Uses: Our TY-VMM data is used to estimate the wind resource and energy production potential of a site in a preliminary way where on-site measurements are not available.

Data Description: The data is produced by the Mesoscale Atmospheric Simulation System (MASS) in 10 KM runs initialized by NCEP/NCAR reanalysis for a sample of 365 days from 15 years (1997-2012). The winds are scaled to our 200 m mean speed

Sample Typical Year
Data Summary
MERRA MERRA (Hourly) MERRA-2 ERAI ERA5 CFSR WRF TY-VMM
Regional Coverage Global Global Global Global Global Global Global Continents
Heights Above Ground 55 - 320 m 50 m 50 m 10 – 270 m 10 and 100m 22 m 10 - 120m 10 - 140m
Horizontal Resolution 70 km 70 km 70 km 80 km 30 km 55 km 3 km or 9 km 200 m
Frequency 6 Hour 1 Hour 1 Hour 6 Hour 1 Hour 6 Hour 1 Hour 1 Hour
Period* 1979 - 2016 1979 - 2016 1980 - Present 1979 - Present 1979 - Present 1979 - Present 10 years ago to Present 365 days sampled from 1997-2012
Wind Speed ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Wind Direction ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Temperature ✔   ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Pressure ✔   ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔ ✔
Air Density ✔     ✔   ✔ ✔ ✔
Turbulence Intensity             ✔ ✔
Stability Class             ✔  
Relative Humidity             ✔  
Precipitation Rate             ✔  
Model Elevation and Surface Roughness             ✔ ✔
Data Format CSV
Use our time series data in Openwind to run windmap and energy captures for your area of interest.