WEMSAR-wind energy mapping using synthetic aperture radar

Satellite-measured wind speed data may offer new possibilities for off-shore wind resource assessment. Currently a minimum of one year wind observations at meteorological masts positioned in the sea or at the coastline are used in atmospheric models at local and regional scale to predict the off-shore wind resources. Satellite SAR imagery from the ERS satellites provide ocean wind speed maps at a local scale of 400 m spatial resolution covering areas of 100 km /spl times/100 km as snap-shots several times a month. New SAR systems (Radarsat, Envisat) will increase the spatial and temporal data coverage at lower cost. The SAR wind speed maps may provide new and useful information relevant for planning optimal siting of off-shore wind parks. A possible future application is thus to use satellite data in combination with numerical modeling in order to get a better indication of where to place a test site.