Wind Online Tools

The Wind Online Tools are a powerful, web-based application with a simple point and click map for easily accessing renewable resource data. For help using these tools, please select from the below list of frequently asked questions. If you require additional assistance, please contact 3TIER Support.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Which Wind Time Series dataset should I choose?
• Can I demo the 90 M Wind Prospecting Tools?
• What wind speed is shown on the map?
• How do I enter a location?
• How do I interpret the graph provided by the Monthly Mean Wind Speed Tool?
• What does the Annual Mean Wind Speed Tool provide?
• How do I interpret the wind rose provided by the Annual Mean Wind Rose Tool?
• Why do we show a +/- next to the annual value?
• What does the Wind Speed Distribution Tool provide?
• What wind speeds are shown on the map?
• What affects wind at a given site?
• How can I compare sites side-by-side?
• How do I change locations for individual tools?
• What is a hub height?
• What makes a good wind resource?
• What is a wind resource assessment?
• What do the colors on the map mean?
• What is the source of the information?
• How accurate are the Wind Prospecting Tools?
• Which Internet browsers does the 3TIER website support?
• Why does the map disappear?
• What data has been created?
• How was the data behind your map created?
• Does 3TIER incorporate observational data?
• What were 3TIER's data validation procedures?
• What happened to 3TIER’s Reference Wind Time Series Product?
• Why is ERA-I available everywhere but not NNRP-D?
• I notice that sometimes ERA-I and NNRP-D disagree, by quite a bit, which one should I use?
• Why do all the various datasets have different start and end times?
• Doesn’t horizontal resolution matter? What about downscaling with weather models like WRF and MM5?
• Why are the long-term mean values of each data set so similar and why don’t they match the values I get when I download these data directly from the various global modeling centers?