About the service

The data collection contains quality-controlled wind observations from 222 tall towers located on the five continents covering the 1984–2017 period. Observations taken at several heights more significant than 10 m above ground level have been retrieved from various sparse datasets and compiled into a unique collection with a standard format, access, documentation and quality control. For the last, a total of 18 quality control checks have been considered to ensure the high quality of the wind records.

Why is this service relevant?

The idea emerged to serve the demand of wind energy users for further availability of tall tower data. These wind records are more representative of the wind flow at the turbine heights since surface wind measurements are highly affected by surface roughness. However, tall tower data are not climate-standard and thus difficult to approach because they usually belong to private companies or are stored in sparse datasets that are hard to find and use. In this regard, we devoted efforts to collecting wind data from existing tall tower locations and compiled them in a standard format, quality control and access point. The data is made freely accessible for non-commercial purposes. Those include:

• Wind energy industry: evaluate the local wind resource characteristics, derive wind power generation estimates and calibrate, monitor weather conditions at wind farms and verify wind atlas products.
• Wind energy research: verify reanalysis products.
• Climate research: correct and verify meteorological forecasts and climate predictions.