The Wind Prospecting Tools are based on the latest scientific techniques, numerical weather prediction (NWP) models, and publicly available observations from meteorological towers worldwide. The computer simulations and the 5 km global wind dataset were developed by 3TIER.

3TIER has validated the annual wind speed range displayed by the Annual Mean Wind Speed tool using data from the NCEP-ADP network.

Find our validation papers here.

The wind speed map over ocean areas is based on satellite measurements from the Scatterometer Climatology of Ocean Winds (SCOW) developed at Oregon State University (OSU). This effort was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) through an award to the OSU Cooperative Institute of Oceanographic Satellite Studies (CIOSS). The map's climatology is based on 8 years of surface wind measurements from the NASA QuikSCAT scatterometer developed and operated by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.