Advances in Science and Research 

About: Advances in Science and Research is an academic journal published by Copernicus Publications. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Wind speed & Climate change. It has an ISSN identifier of 1992-0628. It is also open access. Over the lifetime, 408 publications have been published receiving 4465 citations. The journal is also known as: ASR (Online) & ASR (Print).

Data quality control and homogenization of air temperature and precipitation series in the area of the Czech Republic in the period 1961–2007

Abstract: . Quality control and homogenization has to be undertaken prior to any data analysis in order to eliminate any erroneous values and non climatic biases in time series. In this work we describe and then apply our own approach to data quality control, combining several methods: (i) by applying limits derived from interquartile ranges (ii) by analyzing difference series between candidate and neighbouring stations and (iii) by comparing the series values tested with "expected'' values – technical series created by means of statistical methods for spatial data (e.g. IDW, kriging). Because of the presence of noise in series, statistical homogeneity tests render results with some degree of uncertainty. In this work, the use of various statistical tests and reference series made it possible to increase considerably the number of homogeneity test results for each series and thus to assess homogeneity more reliably. Inhomogeneities were corrected on a daily scale. These methodological approaches are demonstrated by use of the daily data of air temperature and precipitation measured in the area of the Czech Republic. Series were processed by means of developed ProClimDB and AnClim software ( http://www.climahom.eu ).

An overview of drought events in the Carpathian Region in 1961–2010

Abstract: . The Carpathians and their rich biosphere are considered to be highly vulnerable to climate change. Drought is one of the major climate-related damaging natural phenomena and in Europe it has been occurring with increasing frequency, intensity, and duration in the last decades. Due to climate change, land cover changes, and intensive land use, the Carpathian Region is one of the areas at highest drought risk in Europe. In order to analyze the drought events over the last 50 yr in the area, we used a 1961–2010 daily gridded temperature and precipitation dataset. From this, monthly 0.1° × 0.1° grids of four drought indicators (Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), Reconnaissance Drought Indicator (RDI), and Palfai Aridity/Drought Index (PADI)) have been calculated. SPI, SPEI, and RDI have been computed at different time scales (3, 6, and 12 months), whilst PADI has been computed on an annual basis. The dataset used in this paper has been constructed in the framework of the CARPATCLIM project, run by a consortium of institutions from 9 countries (Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Ukraine) with scientific support by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission. Temperature and precipitation station data have been collected, quality-checked, completed, homogenized, and interpolated on the 0.1° × 0.1° grid, and drought indicators have been consequently calculated on the grid itself. Monthly and annual series of the cited indicators are presented, together with high-resolution maps and statistical analysis of their correlation. A list of drought events between 1961 and 2010, based on the agreement of the indicators, is presented. We also discuss three case studies: drought in 1990, 2000, and 2003. The drought indicators have been compared both on spatial and temporal scales: it resulted that SPI, SPEI, and RDI are highly comparable, especially over a 12-month accumulation period. SPEI, which includes PET (Potential Evapo-Transpiration) as RDI does, proved to perform best if drought is caused by heat waves, whilst SPI performed best if drought is mainly driven by a rainfall deficit, because SPEI and RDI can be extreme in dry periods. According to PADI, the Carpathian Region has a sufficient natural water supply on average, with some spots that fall into the ''mild dry'' class, and this is also confirmed by the FAO-UNEP aridity index and the Koppen-Geiger climate classification.

MASC – a small Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) for wind energy research

Abstract: . Originally designed for atmospheric boundary layer research, the MASC (Multipurpose Airborne Sensor Carrier) RPA (Remotely Piloted Aircraft, also known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, UAV) is capable of making in-situ measurements of temperature, humidity and wind in high resolution and precision. The autopilot system ROCS (Research Onboard Computer System) enables the aircraft to fly pre-defined routes between waypoints at constant altitude and airspeed. The system manages to operate in wind speeds up to 15 m s−1 safely. It is shown that a MASC can fly as close as one rotor diameter upstream and downstream of running wind turbines at these wind speeds and take valuable data of incoming flow and wake. The flexible operation of an RPA at the size of a MASC can be a major advantage of the system compared to tower measurements and remote sensing in wind energy research. In the project "Lidar Complex" comparisons of RPA measurements with lidar systems and tower measurements are carried out at two different test sites. First results, including turbulence and wake measurements, from a campaign in autumn 2013 are presented.

Monitoring of climate change in Germany – data, products and services of Germany's National Climate Data Centre

Abstract: . Germany's national meteorological service (Deutscher Wetterdienst, DWD) is the responsible authority for monitoring climate change in Germany. To fulfill this task it operates the National Climate Data Centre ("Nationales KlimaDatenZentrum, NKDZ"). The historical and current instrumental measurements and visual observations of DWD's station network are archived, quality-controlled and used to provide aggregated products, as for example daily and monthly means or climate normals. Gridded data are generated and used to derive time series of national and regional averages. Phenological observations and radiosonde data are also part of the data base. In recent years, additional historical data have been digitized to expand the data base. The products are used for informing the public, e.g. as an element of the German climate atlas ( http://www.deutscher-klimaatlas.de ). One major recent activity was the provision of information for the new climatological reference interval 1981–2010 and an updated climatological analysis based on the newly digitized data.

Evaluation of ERA5, MERRA-2, COSMO-REA6, NEWA and AROME to simulate wind power production over France

Abstract: As variable renewable energies are developing, their impacts on the electric system are growing To anticipate these impacts, prospective studies may use wind power production simulations in the form of 1 h or 30 min time series that are often based on reanalysis wind-speed data The purpose of this study is to assess how several wind-speed datasets are performing when used to simulate wind-power production at the local scale, when no observation is available to use bias correction methods The study evaluates two global reanalysis (MERRA-2 from NASA and ERA5 from ECMWF), two high-resolution models (COSMO-REA6 reanalysis from DWD, AROME NWP model from Meteo-France) and the New European Wind Atlas mesoscale data The study is conducted over continental France In a first part, wind-speed measurements (between 55 and 100 m above ground) at eight locations are directly compared to modelled wind speeds In a second part, 30 min wind-power productions are simulated for every wind farm in France and compared to two open datasets of observed production published by the distribution and transmission system operators, either at the local scale in terms of annual bias, or aggregated at the regional scale, in terms of bias, correlations and diurnal cycles ERA5 is very skilled, despite its low resolution compared to the regional models, but it underestimates wind speeds, especially in mountainous areas AROME and COSMO-REA6 have better skills in complex areas and have generally low biases MERRA-2 and NEWA have large biases and overestimate wind speeds especially at night Several problems affecting diurnal cycles are detected in ERA5 and COSMO-REA6