Air Pollution Technology Course
Wind Rose Activity
Generating a Wind Rose Using Lakes Environmental’s WRPLOTView
1. Open Lakes Environmental à WRPLOT view
2. On the toolbar click Tools à Import from Excel…
3. Click the open folder icon where it says “import surface data from (Excel file)”
4. Choose on the desktop the file called “WindRoseExcel” then click “open”
5. You now have to match the files to ensure that the software properly recognizes which meteorological parameters are what.
6. Also verify the proper unit is selected; on this excel file the wind speed is miles/hr, time is 01-24, and rain is hundredths of an inch
7. Click on the tab for station information, and fill out the requested info, this can be fictitious for this exercise, but it must be filled out to continue (the station ID only accepts numerals).
8. The first row to import will be row 2 since you do not want to include the column names.
9. Click “import” located on the right side of the screen
10. Save the file on the desktop as a SAMSON (.sam) file with the name “WindRose1”
11. View the file if you choose, then close it.
12. Close the box with title “Import surface data from Excel”
13. Click the open folder icon on the right hand side that says “Add file…”
14. Under files of type, choose SAMSON files. Also view available file types for your own familiarity.
15. Choose the WindRose1 file you just created
16. Now you can click on the tabs for wind rose, graph, data file info etc…
17. Play around with different options for viewing the wind rose such as knots, wind direction etc. Also, look at the different tabs that have other options as well including to specify days you want included/excluded in your report.
18. The software will allow you to create a report that will have supplemental information on it that you provide.
Notes: The formats for the excel files are particular when you use WRPLOT to import them; it will not accept decimals for wind speed/direction, so your files may need to be “cleaned up” before use. The time column is also a number format rather than a time format (confusing but…). You can use the example data as a reference for how your own data should be formatted.
You can also use the WRPLOT as a link to gather existing data from the internet in file formats that WRPLOT uses. Much of the data is older, but can help with trends and as a source for information.
Desert Research Institute’s Western Regional Climate Center Data Tools
DRI’s WRCC (http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/index.html) conducts applied research on climate issues affecting the West. WRCC maintains historical climate databases for the Western United States (for 1000-6000 stations)
o Daily climate observations for digital period of record
o Summarized monthly climate data
o Hourly precipitation data
o 15-minute precipitation data
o Surface airways hourly observations
o Remote Automatic Weather Station (RAWS)
To generate a wind rose:
1. Go to the RAWS Data website: http://www.raws.dri.edu/index.html
2. Click on the state of your choice and find the monitoring station closest to your area
3. From the date chart that appears, identify the time period for which you would like to find data (note: only the months/years in BOLD RED are available from RAWS)
4. Select Wind Rose Graph and Tables from the left sidebar
5. Set the date parameters and other options for your wind rose (you may use the default options if desired)
6. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click Submit Info
7. Your wind rose will be generated, along with summary data tables (so you don’t have to guess the actual percentage of time the wind was blowing from a particular direction)
8. Be sure to check out all the other tools and functions offered by the RAWS website (see left sidebar), as well as resources and tools offered by the WRCC website (see the top of this page).
AIAQTP Revised 3/25/11