Establishment of a Wind Map of the Korean Peninsula I. Evaluation of Offshore Wind Resources Using Remote-Sensing Data

In order to understand regional wind characteristics and to estimate offshore wind resources, a wind map of the Korean Peninsula was established using remote sensing data from the satellite, U.S. NASA QuikSCAT which has been deployed for the SeaWinds Project since 1999. According to the linear regression result between the wind map data and in situ marine buoy data, the correlation factor was greatly improved up to 0.87 by blending the remote sensing data of QuikSCAT with U.S. NCEP/NCAR CDAS reanalysis data to eliminate precipitation interference and to increase temporal resolution. It is found from the established wind map that the wind speed in winter is prominent temporally and the South Sea shows spatially high energy density over the wind class 6. The reason is deduced that the north west winds through the Yellow Sea and the north east winds through the East Sea derived by the low pressure developed in Japan are accelerated passing through the Korea Channel and formed high wind energy region in the South Sea; the same trends are confirmed from the statistical analysis of the meteorological observation data of KMA.