Dutch Offshore Wind Atlas: Validated Wind Climatology at 10-600 Meters Height

DOWA provides a validated wind climatology for the Dutch offshore region based on 10 years of model data from 2008 to 2017. The dataset includes information on temperature, pressure, and relative humidity at heights from 10 to 600 meters across a 2.5 km grid. It is produced by the Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations using the HARMONIE-AROME weather model nested in the ERA5 re-analysis.

Use Cases

• Modeling wind farm energy yield based on the validated 10-year wind climatology.
• Analyzing atmospheric conditions for offshore operations based on temperature, pressure, and humidity data.
• Calibrating other wind models using the high-resolution 2.5 km grid data.
• Assessing long-term wind resource variability from the 2008-2017 time series.

Strengths

• Data is validated and based on a 10-year period (2008-2017).
• Provides multi-parameter atmospheric data (wind, temperature, pressure, humidity).
• Offers high spatial resolution across a 2.5 km grid and vertical profiles up to 600 meters.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.
• A known technical issue exists: the proj4 string in the NetCDF file is incorrect.

Provenance

Source

Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties (Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations)

Collection Method

Weather model HARMONIE-AROME nested in re-analysis ERA5.

Time Range

2008-2017

Freshness

Data covers 2008-2017; last update date for the dataset is unknown.

Geography

Dutch offshore region