wind.dl: Wind-data download

In rWind: Download, Edit and Include Wind and Sea Currents Data in Ecological and Evolutionary Analysis

Wind-data download

Description

wind.dl downloads wind data from the Global Forecast System (GFS) of the USA's National Weather Service (NWS) (https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/weather-climate-models/global-forecast). Wind data are taken from NOAA/NCEP Global Forecast System (GFS) Atmospheric Model collection. Geospatial resolution is 0.5 degrees (approximately 50 km), and wind is calculated for Earth surface, at 10 m. More metadata information for the current PacIOOS data: https://pae-paha.pacioos.hawaii.edu/erddap/griddap/ncep_global.graph Historical data are obtained from the official NOAA/NCEI GFS 0.5 degree archive: https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/metadata/landing-page/bin/iso?id=gov.noaa.ncdc:C00634

Usage

wind.dl(
  yyyy,
  mm,
  dd,
  tt,
  lon1,
  lon2,
  lat1,
  lat2,
  type = "read-data",
  trace = 1,
  source = c("auto", "pacioos", "ncei")
)

read.rWind(file)

Arguments

yyyy	Selected year.
mm	Selected month.
dd	Selected day.
tt	Selected time. There are currently several options at the GFS database: 00:00 - 03:00 - 06:00 - 09:00 - 12:00 - 15:00 - 18:00 - 21:00 (UTC).
lon1	Western longitude
lon2	Eastern longitude
lat1	Southern latitude
lat2	Northern latitude
type	Output type. "read-data" is selected by default, creating an R object. If you choose "csv", wind.dl create a a CSV file in your working directory named "wind_yyyy_mm_dd_tt.csv".
trace	if trace = 1 (by default) track downloaded files
source	Data provider. "auto" selects PacIOOS for dates in its current coverage and NOAA/NCEI for older dates. Use "pacioos" or "ncei" to force one provider.
file	file name of the saved ".csv" files.

Details

The output type is determined by type="csv" or type="read-data". If type="csv" is selected, the function creates a "wind_yyyy_mm_dd_tt.csv" file that is downloaded at the work directory. If type="read-data" is selected, an R object (data.frame) is created.

Value

wind.dl() and read.rWind() return an object of classes rWind and data.frame, with one row per grid cell. Columns are time (POSIXct, UTC), lat and lon (degrees), ugrd10m and vgrd10m (eastward and northward wind components in m/s), dir (direction of movement, in degrees clockwise from north), and speed (m/s). With type = "csv", wind.dl() also writes a CSV file in the working directory and returns the same object.

Note

Longitude coordinate are provided by GFS dataset in 0/360 notation and transformed internally into -180/180. Wind "dir" denotes where the wind is going (toward), not from where is coming. With source = "auto", dates before the current PacIOOS coverage are requested from NOAA/NCEI.

Author(s)

Javier Fernández-López ([e-mail])

References

http://www.digital-geography.com/cloud-gis-getting-weather-data/#.WDOWmbV1DCL

https://pae-paha.pacioos.hawaii.edu/erddap/griddap/ncep_global.graph

See Also

wind.dl_2, wind2raster

Examples

# Download wind for Iberian Peninsula region at 2015, February 12, 00:00


wind.dl(2015, 2, 12, 0, -10, 5, 35, 45)

rWind documentation built on Oct. 18, 2026, 5:08 p.m.