88th Annual Meeting (20-24 January 2008)

Monday, 21 January 2008
Diurnal and seasonal wind variability for selected stations in southern california climate regions
Exhibit Hall B (Ernest N. Morial Convention Center)
Charles J. Fisk, Naval Base Ventura County, Point Mugu, CA., Point Mugu, California
Poster PDF (2.6 MB)
Using a subset of stations that are included in the Western Regional Climate Center's Southern California climate regions, the purpose of this investigation is to survey and characterize hourly/monthly wind climatologies for the given stations, and in the process demonstrate a graphical methodology which comprehensively depicts seasonal and diurnal wind variation on single page layouts. The regions include the Sonoran, South Interior, Mohave, South Coast, Central Coast, and San Joaquin Valley,

The graphical methodology is the Two-Way Time-Section climogram, an analog to the topographical map - calendar month replacing North/South or the y-axis, and hour of the day replacing East-West or the the X-axis. The various points on the graph represent the wind climatological parameter statistics for a given month and hour of the day. Among other features, the points can be contoured and areas of the graph with similar properties colored to lend additional insights.

Three types of graphs are employed: Mean Vector Wind/Constancy, Prevailing Winds (Direction, Pct Occurrence Frequencies, and Mean Speeds from that direction), and Mean overall scalar speeds/Pct of Time with Calms.

Such charts may be useful as quick study decision-aid and planning tools for a number of applications

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