Ocean wind speed characteristic over Malaysian seas from multi-mission satellite altimeter during monsoon periods

Abstract

The need for precise measurement of wind speed and growth of interest in offshore wind power has led to development of many measurements technique. This paper presents a study of wind speed characteristics during monsoon periods (north-east monsoon and south-west monsoon) over Malaysian seas using multi-mission satellite altimetry data from year 1993 to 2011. The study area covers in this study are Malacca Straits, South China Sea, Sulu Sea and Celebes Sea. From the result, the strongest winds are between Novembers to February, but on average, December is the strongest recorded wind speed at most locations. The South China Sea is the roughest region throughout the year compare to the other sea. It was concluded that using altimetry data, we can solve the disadvantage of conventional measurement in terms of spatial data distributions