Abstract
Studies on climate change typically consider temperature and precipitation over extended periods but less so the wind. We used the Cross-Calibrated Multi-Platform (CCMP) 24-year wind field data set to investigate the trends of wind energy over the South China Sea during 1988–2011. The results reveal a clear trend of increase in wind power density for each of three base statistics (i.e., mean, 90th percentile and 99th percentile) in all seasons and for annual means. The trends of wind power density showed obvious temporal and spatial variations. The magnitude of the trends was greatest in winter, intermediate in spring, and smallest in summer and autumn. A greater trend of increase was found in the northern areas of the South China Sea than in southern parts. The magnitude of the annual and seasonal trends over the South China Sea was larger in extreme high events (i.e., 90th and 99th percentiles) compared to the mean conditions. Sea surface temperature showed a negative correlation with the variability of wind power density over the majority of the South China Sea in all seasons and annual means, except for winter (41.7%).
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6 Data Availability Statement
The Cross-Calibrated Multi-Platform (CCMP) wind field data set was provided by the Making Earth Science data records for Use in Research Environments (MEaSUREs) programof the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the sea surface temperature data are provided by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 5171101175, 41606196), the Tianjin Natural Science Foundation (No. 16JCYBJC20600), the National Marine Renewable Energy Programs of China (No. GHME2016ZC04), and the National Marine Function-Oriented Zone Planning
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Jiang, B., Wei, Y., Ding, J. et al. Trends of sea surface wind energy over the South China Sea. J. Ocean. Limnol. 37, 1510–1522 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-019-8307-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-019-8307-6