Offshore surface wind map in Río de la Plata and Atlantic Ocean shelf

Abstract

Offshore wind is particularly relevant for wind and coastal engineering port designs and offshore ocean platform installation designs such as wind farms. The present study included the regions of the Río de la Plata and the Atlantic Ocean shelf.

For the analysis, we considered 13 years of data from five buoys, 17 satellites, and three different numerical mesoscale simulations of Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) with different combinations of parameterization schemes. We present a seasonal analysis of the WRF mean bias error at a height of 10 m for three parameterization schemes, as well as a surface wind map over the offshore region with observational joined satellite data (JSsD) including the Río de la Plata and the closer Atlantic Ocean and wind resource variability. The near offshore region of the Atlantic Ocean coast show a significative wind resource with mean annual velocity of 6.93 m/s at 10 m above the sea level. The study points out that offshore measurement campaigns in areas far from the shore (buoys, islands, or platforms) should be implemented, as they would be beneficial for the region in developing a greater insight into regional offshore wind resources.