In this study, the offshore wind resources in the East China Sea and South China Sea were estimated from over ten years of QuikSCAT scatterometer wind products. Since the errors of these products are larger close to the coast due to the land contamination of radar backscatter signal and the complexity of air-sea interaction processes, an empirical relationship that adjusts QuikSCAT winds in coastal waters was first proposed based on vessel measurements. Then the shape and scale parameters of Weibull function are determined for wind resource estimation. The wind roses are also plotted. Results show the difference of wind climates in the two regions.
Accurate ocean surface wind data in the coastal region are very important in the context of offshore wind energy resources and offshore wind farm power production. Spaceborne remote sensors, such as scatterometers, provide valuable wind speed and wind direction information for wind resource applications (Liu, 2002). In this study, over ten years of QuikSCAT scatterometer wind vectors observed twice daily were used to estimate the wind resources in the East China Sea and South China Sea. The accuracy of these products has a root mean square error (RMSE) value of 1.01 m/s in wind speed and 23º in wind direction in the open ocean. However, the errors are larger close to the coast due to the land contamination of radar backscatter signal from the large scatterometer footprint and the complexity of air-sea interaction processes in the coastal ocean (Tang et al., 2004; Yang et al., 2011). Thus an empirical relationship that adjusts QuikSCAT winds in coastal waters less than 100 km away from the coastline was first investigated based on the comparison of QuicSCAT wind speeds and vessel measurements. The wind roses were also plotted to investigate the wind direction characteristics in both seas.
