High-Resolution WRF Model Simulations for Offshore Wind Resource Assessment in Spanish Territorial Waters (1990-2014)

This dataset consists of annual output files from simulations performed using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model version 4.3.3, with a spatial resolution of 0.1° in latitude and longitude. The simulations cover the period 1990–2014 and were generated to analyze the historical offshore wind energy resource in Spanish territorial waters.

Each annual file, named “wrfpost_d02_XXXX.nc” (where XXXX represents the year), is stored in netCDF4 format and follows CF-1.6 conventions. The simulation domain (d02) is configured with a Lambert Conformal projection.

Geographical Coverage

• Minimum Latitude: 33.239681°N
• Maximum Latitude: 49.625706°N
• Minimum Longitude: -17.924255°E
• Maximum Longitude: 7.781036°E

Variables Included

Each file contains the following atmospheric variables at different heights and time steps:

• Sea Level Pressure (slp) [hPa]
• 2m Air Temperature (t2m) [K]
• 10m Wind Components (u10m, v10m) [m/s]
• 10m Wind Speed and Direction (ws10m, wd10m) [m/s, degrees]
• 100m Wind Components (u100m, v100m) [m/s]
• 100m Wind Speed and Direction (ws100m, wd100m) [m/s, degrees]

Methodology and Data Sources

These high-resolution simulations were conducted as part of the study:

📖 Thomas, B., Costoya, X., Decastro, M., Insua-Costa, D., Senande-Rivera, M., & Gómez-Gesteira, M. (2023). Downscaling CMIP6 climate projections to classify the future offshore wind energy resource in the Spanish territorial waters. Journal of Cleaner Production, 433, 139860. DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.139860

The WRF model was forced with climate projections from the CMIP6 multimodel ensemble published in:

📖 Xu, Z., Han, Y., Tam, C.-Y., Yang, Z.-L., & Fu, C. (2021). Bias-corrected CMIP6 global dataset for dynamical downscaling of the historical and future climate (1979–2100). Scientific Data, 8, 293. DOI: 10.1038/s41597-021-01079-3

Acknowledgement:
Computation took place at Finisterrae III supercomputer that belongs to CESGA (Centro de Supercomputación de Galicia) located at Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain.