Spatio-temporal characteristics of wind observations over South Korea: 1982-2011

In this study, we investigate the spatial and temporal characteristics of long-term (1982-2011) wind measurements over South Korea. First, ground-based measurements are adjusted to standard 10 m above ground level using a modified wind-profile power law, to account for wind variation in the actual measurement height. Then, wind climatology, variability, and long-term trends were calculated using the daily wind-speed series. The spatially averaged annual mean wind speeds over South Korea were found to be characterized by a light breeze (approximately 2 m s(-1)). Seasonality in the mean wind speed was generally influenced by the monsoonal flow; wind speeds were higher in winter and spring than in summer and autumn. However, the tendencies of near-surface wind speed showed opposite values at clustered stations regardless of season. There were negative trends with -0.028 m s(-1) a(-1) for 25% of the stations (R1) and positive trends with 0.020 m s(-1) a(-1) for 75% of the stations (R2). We found that the annual trends in the two regions (R1 and R2) were statistically significant and homogenous for all time-varying percentiles over 12 months of the year. Our study also identified that geo-spatial features such as elevation, land-use, geographical setting, and urbanization have large impacts on the spatiotemporal characteristics of the local wind speed.