The central point in the wind transformation model of WAsP – the so-called Wind Atlas Methodology – is the concept of a Regional or Generalized Wind Climate, or Wind Atlas. This Regional Wind Climate (RWC) is the hypothetical wind climate for an ideal, featureless and completely flat terrain with a uniform surface roughness, assuming the same overall atmospheric conditions as those of the measuring position.

To deduce the regional wind climate from measured wind in actual terrain the same flow model is used, but reversely, to remove the local terrain effects.

To deduce the wind climate at a location of interest from the regional wind climate, a flow model is used, to introduce the effect of the different terrain features:

* terrain height variations

* terrain roughness

* sheltering obstacles

The concept of the Regional Wind Climate links the wind data from a measuring mast to the predicted wind climate and wind resources at locations of interest, typically a candidate site for a wind turbine or a wind farm.

WAsP and the Wind Atlas Methodology