Strong along-channel winds on the coast of British Columbia have been investigated at several locations. Large-scale (synoptic-scale) atmospheric situations have been determined for different types of the along-channel winds that blow up and down channels throughout different seasons. Wintertime outflow winds are associated with a sea-level high-pressure area over the interior of British Columbia caused by an arctic air mass. Wintertime inflows are caused by sea level low-pressure systems that advance toward the coast of British Columbia. Summertime inflows are initiated by a frontal passage or an inland thermal trough. Case studies at Howe Sound are provided utilizing a period of intensive observations. Inflows (outflows) are accompanied by high (lower) temperature and dew point and caused by an along-channel pressure gradient pointed inland (toward the coast). An outflow case shows potential hydraulic features, and the vertical structure of two cases indicate a lower gap flow layer within 1-2 km height. --Leaf ii.
Wind resources are investigated and estimated offshore of the northern and central coasts of British Columbia, Canada. Remote sensing-based wind speed observations from a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) mounted on the Canadian RADARSAT-2 satellite are used for mapping offshore winds. In addition, in-situ wind speed observations extracted from several buoys distributed in the study region are used to analyze the temporal and spatial wind speed variations in relation to wind power generation. Sustained winds above several wind turbine thresholds are analyzed and values of 50-yr and 100-yr return extreme wind speed levels are calculated. The wind variability analysis suggests few interruptions to power generation by either very low wind speeds or extreme wind speed events with high spatial variability between offshore areas and sites located within the coastal mountains. The SAR wind speed fields are characterized by a high spatial resolution but cover a period of less than 2.5 years with a random temporal availability. The SAR fields are extrapolated to reanalysis long-term wind fields that are available over a climatological time period with a sub-daily temporal resolution but a coarse spatial resolution. The extrapolation procedure is developed by applying a statistical downscaling model and a bias-based correction method. Wind fields from both methods are validated against the in-situ observations from buoys. The extrapolated wind fields are used for mapping offshore winds by creating a robust wind climatology that represents the mesoscale wind variance as well as the diurnal wind variability. This wind climatology is used to calculate the wind statistics and power density, in addition to estimate offshore wind resources. Viable areas for wind power development are defined by using high resolution bathymetric data and considering the general environmental and ecological constraints in the region. The estimated offshore wind resource energy using only theiv determined viable areas is found to resemble a large portion of the current total power generation in British Columbia. Most suitable areas for offshore wind farms are determined by developing criteria based on a combination of the turbine tower technology, water depth zoning and power density values.
