%0 Journal Article %1 wohland2019inconsistent %A Wohland, Jan %A Omrani, Nour-Eddine %A Witthaut, Dirk %A Keenlyside, Noel S. %D 2019 %I American Geophysical Union (AGU) %J Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres %K 20cr climate climatology decadal energy renewables wind %R 10.1029/2018jd030083 %T Inconsistent wind speed trends in current 20th century reanalyses %U https://doi.org/10.1029%2F2018jd030083 %X Reanalysis data underpin much research in atmospheric and related sciences. While most reanalysis only cover the last couple of decades, NOAA (20CR) and ECMWF (ERA20C, CERA20C) also developed reanalyses for the entire 20th century that theoretically allow investigation of multi‐decadal variability. However, the approaches adopted to handle the massively evolving number of observations can cause spurious signals. Here we focus on wind speeds, as its assimilation is a key difference among these two products. We show that ERA20C and CERA20C feature significant trends in the North Atlantic and North Pacific wind speeds of up to 3 m/s per century. We show that there is a good relation between the trends in the reanalysis and assimilated wind speeds. In contrast, 20CR and the ECMWF free model run ERA20CM do not show positive trends in the same regions. As a consequence, conclusions drawn from any single 20th century reanalysis should be treated cautiously in particular in sectors with a strong wind dependency (e.g., wind energy).

@article{wohland2019inconsistent, abstract = {Reanalysis data underpin much research in atmospheric and related sciences. While most reanalysis only cover the last couple of decades, NOAA (20CR) and ECMWF (ERA20C, CERA20C) also developed reanalyses for the entire 20th century that theoretically allow investigation of multi‐decadal variability. However, the approaches adopted to handle the massively evolving number of observations can cause spurious signals. Here we focus on wind speeds, as its assimilation is a key difference among these two products. We show that ERA20C and CERA20C feature significant trends in the North Atlantic and North Pacific wind speeds of up to 3 m/s per century. We show that there is a good relation between the trends in the reanalysis and assimilated wind speeds. In contrast, 20CR and the ECMWF free model run ERA20CM do not show positive trends in the same regions. As a consequence, conclusions drawn from any single 20th century reanalysis should be treated cautiously in particular in sectors with a strong wind dependency (e.g., wind energy).}, added-at = {2019-02-05T10:32:09.000+0100}, author = {Wohland, Jan and Omrani, Nour-Eddine and Witthaut, Dirk and Keenlyside, Noel S.}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2f50bf22ebb0f3d40cd8ae8bea555233b/pbett}, doi = {10.1029/2018jd030083}, interhash = {0e2f7c26f7d0f02d7c3960ef029daafa}, intrahash = {f50bf22ebb0f3d40cd8ae8bea555233b}, journal = {Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres}, keywords = {20cr climate climatology decadal energy renewables wind}, month = feb, publisher = {American Geophysical Union ({AGU})}, timestamp = {2019-02-05T10:32:09.000+0100}, title = {Inconsistent wind speed trends in current 20th century reanalyses}, url = {https://doi.org/10.1029%2F2018jd030083}, year = 2019 }