Task 1.1 Available Data Sets
Meteorological data from tall towers
Another source is The Tall Tower Dataset. This is a database of 250+ tall towers around the world compiled with a common format (netCDF) and quality controlled. For some towers the latest data is from 2016. See "The Tall Tower Dataset: a unique initiative to boost wind energy research" for a description of the quality control, and a list of the towers in the supplement.
IEA Wind Task 43 has a list with different types of open data resources some of which is also data from masts.

Lead
Helmut Frank
DWD, Deutscher Wetterdienst
Helmut.Frank@dwd.de
Site name | Coordinates | altitude above MSL | Tower height | URL | Contact | Data policy | Data format | Obs. period | Other |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cabauw, NL | 4.926° E, 51.97° N | -0.7 m | 200 m | www.cesar-observatory.nl/index.php | marcel.brinkenberg@knmi.nl | Cesar data policy | netCDF | 2000-04-01 to previous month | |
IJmuiden, NL | 3.436° N, 52.848° E | 0 m | 92 m | www.windopzee.net/en/meteomast-ijmuiden-mmij/ | hans.verhoef@tno.nl. Registration for data | Ask here for permission | 2012 - 2018 | Offshore North Sea | |
Risø, DK | 12.088° E, 55.694° N | 0 m | 125 m | rodeo.dtu.dk/rodeo/ProjectOverview.aspx?&Project=5&Rnd=975820 | Allan Vesth | Ask nicely | xlsx | 1995-11-20 - | Data measured since 1958; some months break in 2008. |
Østerild, DK | 8.88080° E, 57.04888° N | 9 m | 250 m | rodeo.dtu.dk/rodeo/ProjectOverview.aspx?&Project=179&Rnd=975820 | Yoram Eisenberg | Ask nicely | xlsx | 2015-01-28 - | Two 250m masts in 4.3 km distance, both instrumented. Additionally, 7 smaller masts up to turbine hub heights. |
Taggen, SE | 14.519° E, 55.8726° N | 0 m | 100 m | rodeo.dtu.dk/rodeo/ProjectOverview.aspx?&Project=174&Rnd=758000 | Göran Loman | 2014-07-29 to 2017-09-16 | Offshore. Owned by Vattenfall. | ||
Stora Middelgrund, SE | 12.1047° E, 56.5613° N | 0 m | 120 m | rodeo.dtu.dk/rodeo/ProjectOverview.aspx?&Project=88&Rnd=758000 | Karen Enevoldsen | 2008-11-28 - 2015-12-22 | Offshore. | ||
FINO 1, DE | 6.588° E, 54.015° N | 0 m | 100 m | www.fino1.de/en/, fino.bsh.de | fino@bsh.de kai.herklotz@bsh.de, olaf.outzen@bsh.de | General terms and conditions for data use of FINO | ASCII | since 01/2004 | Offshore North Sea, INNWIND.EU report Deliverable 1.11 (pages 10f) |
FINO 2, DE | 13.1542° E, 55.0069° N | 0 m | 100 m | www.fino2.de/en/, fino.bsh.de | fino@bsh.de kai.herklotz@bsh.de, olaf.outzen@bsh.de | General terms and conditions for data use of FINO | ASCII | since 08/2007 | Offshore Baltic Sea, INNWIND.EU report Deliverable 1.11 (pages 10f) |
FINO 3, DE | 7.158° E, 55.195° N | 0 m | 100 m | www.fino3.de/en/, fino.bsh.de | fino@bsh.de kai.herklotz@bsh.de, olaf.outzen@bsh.de | General terms and conditions for data use of FINO | ASCII | since 09/2009 | Offshore North Sea, INNWIND.EU report Deliverable 1.11 (pages 10f) |
KIT, DE | 8.426° E, 49.0925° N | 110.4 m | 200 m | www.imk-tro.kit.edu/english/7779.php www.imk.kit.edu/messmast | martin.kohler@kit.edu | since 1972-12-01 | |||
Hamburg, DE | 10.105139° E, 53.519917° N | 0.3 m | 280 m | wettermast.uni-hamburg.de or www.cen.uni-hamburg.de | ingo.lange@uni-hamburg.de, felix.ament@uni-hamburg.de | Data policy (in german) | ASCII | since 1995 | Descriptioni of mast in Brümmer et al. |
Falkenberg, MOL-RAO, DE | 14.12° E, 52.17° N | 73 m | 98 m | MOL-RAO Profile Measurements at Towers and Masts | frank.beyrich@dwd.de | ASCII netCDF | since 2003 | Data from CEOP | |
Iowa Environmental Mesonet A1, USA | 93.3572° W, 42.19676° N | 344m | 120 m | https://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/projects/iao/ | E. S. Takle (gstakle@iastate.edu) | contact G. Takle | since June 2016 | 22 km from A2, within 200-turbine wind farm | |
Iowa Environmental Mesonet A2, USA | 93.51945° W, 42.34575° N | 357m | 120 m | https://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/projects/iao/ | E. S. Takle (gstakle@iastate.edu) | contact G. Takle | since June 2016 | 22 km from A1, outside wind farm. Plus sodar wind profiler since May 2018 | |
NREL Flatirons Campus (M2), USA | 105.2347° W, 39.9106° N | 1855 m | 82 m | midcdmz.nrel.gov/apps/sitehome.pl?site=NWTC | david.jager@nrel.gov | Jager & Andreas (1996) dx.doi.org/10.5439/1052222 | ASCII | since 1996 | 1 min resolution |
National Wind Technology Center (M5), USA | 105.23° W, 39.6° N | 1835 m | 135 m | wind.nrel.gov/MetData/M5Twr/ | George.Scott@nrel.gov | NREL: Wind Data and Tools | ASCII | M4 from 2012 to 2015, M5 since 2013 | Next to tower M2 (above). |
Boulder Atmospheric Observatory (BAO), USA | 105.0° W, 40.05° N | 1584 m | 300 m | www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/technology/bao/ | daniel.wolfe@noaa.gov | README_BAO.pdf | ASCII | 1977 to 2016 | Unfortunatelly the tower was decommissoned on 2016-07-31. |
Other lists of tower data or wind at approx. 100m
- The Tall Tower Dataset at INDECIS Data portal. See top.
- IEA Wind Task 43 has a list with different types of open data resources some of which is also data from masts.
- DTU Wind Energy online data projects:
- UK offshore masts from UK Marine Data Exchange
- Atmosphere to Electrons of the US Department of Energy lists data from many projects. We want to point out:
- WFIP2 data, or WFIP2 at NOAA.
- Buoy LIDAR project with LIDAR observations of offshore winds
- BPA Meteorological Information: Meteorological Information from BPA (Bonneville Power Administration) Weather Sites in the Pacific Northwest of the USA. However, the tallest tower is only 63 m high.
- Wind Atlas for South Africa data, 10 masts of 100m across the country.
- ICOS Atmospheric Measurement Network: ICOS is the European Integrated Carbon Observation System to measure the carbon cycle. However, at least some of the masts measure wind at or above 100 m agl. Choose a location and click on meteo, e.g. the OPE-ANDRA observatory in France
- The Wind Resource Assessment Group wiki has datasets and mast data, partially overlapping the results here.
Status: April 2023, Helmut Frank (DWD) Gregor Giebel (DTU), Andrew Clifton (enviConnect), Will Shaw (PNNL).