Variability of Daily Maximum Wind Speed across China, 1975–2016: An Examination of Likely Causes

Abstract

Assessing change in daily maximum wind speed and its likely causes is crucial for many applications such as wind power generation and wind disaster risk governance. Multidecadal variability of observed near-surface daily maximum wind speed (DMWS) from 778 stations over China is analyzed for 1975–2016. A robust homogenization protocol using the R package Climatol was applied to the DMWS observations. The homogenized dataset displayed a significant (p < 0.05) declining trend of −0.038 m s−1 decade−1 for all China annually, with decreases in winter (−0.355 m s−1 decade−1, p < 0.05) and autumn (−0.108 m s−1 decade−1; p < 0.05) and increases in summer (+0.272 m s−1 decade−1, p < 0.05) along with a weak recovery in spring (+0.032 m s−1 decade−1; p > 0.10); that is, DMWS declined during the cold semester (October–March) and increased during the warm semester (April–September). Correlation analysis of the Arctic Oscillation, the Southern Oscillation, and the west Pacific modes exhibited significant correlation with DMWS variability, unveiling their complementarity in modulating DMWS. Further, we explored potential physical processes relating to the atmospheric circulation changes and their impacts on DMWS and found that 1) overall weakened horizontal airflow [large-scale mean horizontal pressure gradient (from −0.24 to +0.02 hPa decade−1) and geostrophic wind speed (from −0.6 to +0.6 m s−1 decade−1)], 2) widely decreased atmospheric vertical momentum transport [atmospheric stratification thermal instability (from −3 to +1.5 decade−1) and vertical wind shear (from −0.4 to +0.2 m s−1 decade−1)], and 3) decreased extratropical cyclones frequency (from −0.3 to 0 month decade−1) are likely causes of DMWS change.

Uneven Warming Likely Contributed to Declining Near‐Surface Wind Speeds in Northern China Between 1961 and 2016

“…According to Geostrophic Approximation Theory (Lin et al., 2013), near‐surface wind speed variability over northern China may be explained by differences in near‐surface air temperature and pressure between the high‐latitude zone (50°–60°N) and the northern China zone (35°–45°N) both between 75°E and 135°E. Following previous studies (Y. Li et al., 2018; Zhang et al., 2020), the meridional air temperature and pressure gradient with respect to latitude was defined as: where SG is the gradient in either air temperature (°C) or pressure (hPa); ABS means absolute value; n is the total number of grid cells at a given latitude; and CHL and CNC are the near‐surface air temperature or pressure for grid cells in the high‐latitude zone and the northern China zone, respectively.…”

“…Note that differences in wind speed evolution among seasons were not fully related to the differences of the air temperature and pressure gradients, which means that other physical processes also affected wind speed. For instance, wind speed in northern China was partly regulated by synoptic circulation systems (i.e., extratropical cyclones, Zhang et al., 2020). Increased surface roughness resulting from forest growth and urbanization is another cause for global terrestrial wind stilling (Z. Li et al., 2018; Vautard et al., 2010; Z. Zhang et al., 2019).…”

“…Trends in near-surface wind speed were calculated in meters per second per decade (hereafter m s −1 dec −1 ) using Sen's slope method (Gilbert 1987), and an 11-year Gaussian low pass filter was used to assess multi-decadal near-surface wind speed variability. The statistical significance of the near-surface wind speed trends was calculated using Mann-Kendall's tau-b non-parametric correlation coefficient (Kendall & Gibbons 1990), and was expressed at three p-level thresholds (significant at p < 0.05, significant at p < 0.10, and not significant at p < 0.10, following McVicar et al, 2010;Minola et al, 2016;Zhang et al, 2020 (Lin et al, 2013), near-surface wind speed variability over northern China may be explained by differences in near-surface air temperature and pressure between the high-latitude zone (50°-60°N) and the northern China zone (35°-45°N) both between 75°E and 135°E. Following previous studies (Y.…”

Evaluation of wind erosion control practices at a photovoltaic power station within a sandy area of northwest, China

“…There are frequent sandstorms, and the average annual wind speed is 2.2 m s −1 , with a maximum of 3.0 m s −1 in April and a minimum of 1.7 m s −1 in September. The average seasonal wind speeds are 2.8 m s −1 in spring, 2.2 m s −1 in summer, 1.8 m s −1 in autumn, and 2.0 m s −1 in winter, and the daily average maximum wind speeds are 9.4 m s −1 in spring, 8.0 m s −1 in summer, 8.0 m s −1 in autumn, and 8.3 m s −1 in winter, respectively (Zhang et al, 2020). The primary vegetation includes Artemisia ordosica and Salix cheilophila Schneid , with sparsely distributed Phyllostachys propinqua , Hedysarum scoparium , Hedysarum fruticosum , and Setaria viridis (L.) Beauv (Yuan, Zhang, Bu, Yang, & Yuan, 2016).…”

Utilizing homogenized observation records and reconstructed time series data to estimate recent trends in Mid-Atlantic soil moisture scarcity

“…While the soil moisture algorithm has been used at a small number of the Mid-Atlantic observation sites and has been introduced in previous studies (Smith and Chang 2020), it has not been applied to region-wide data capturing the majority of certified locations. Similarly, while Climatol has been utilized in studies on several continents (e.g., Zhang et al 2020), it had not yet been deployed with North American data nor with trends in evapotranspiration. This analysis is also the first in which the algorithms have been paired.…”