Long-Term Trend of Surface Wind Speed in Korea: Anemometer Height Adjustment

The long-term trend of surface wind speed in Korea is examined for 31 KMA weather stations from 1985 to 2019. Most stations, except Daegwallyeong, have several times of anemometer height changes from tens of centimeters to several meters. To minimize such height change effect on long-term wind trend, the present study adjusts anemometer height in each station to the standard height of 10 m using the power-law wind profile. This adjustment results in non-negligible trend change. For instance, the increasing surface wind speed at Suwon station, which has six times of anemometer height changes in a range of 0.8 m to 20 m, is weakened up to 67% and becomes statistically insignificant. Likewise, the decreasing trend at Andong station, with three times of anemometer height changes in a range of 10 m to 15.5 m, is weakened up to 66%. A similar weakening in long-term trend is observed in most stations regardless of positive and negative trends. However, due to the cancellation between weakened negative trends and weakened positive trends, the station-averaged wind speed trend in Korea does not change much. This result suggests that anemometer height adjustment is crucial for evaluating local wind speed trend but its impact on nation-wide wind speed trend is rather minor.