ABSTRACT
The present article describes a dataset encompassing model outputs generated by the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) regional climate model. A high-resolution (1km) downscaling simulation was performed over two tropical islands, Reunion and Mauritius, situated in the South-West Indian Ocean (SWIO), with initial and boundary conditions provided by the ERA5 reanalysis with a global resolution of 0.25° × 0.25°. The simulation used three nested domains sequentially configured with spatial resolutions of 9, 3, and 1km, respectively, with a downscaling ratio of 3. The physical configurations of this simulation were determined through previous modeling studies and sensitivity tests. The published simulation data currently covers a period of 10 years, starting from 1991 (with the possibility to be extended to 30 years). Over 60 output variables were selected for publication with open access, including those related to the intermittent energy resources (e.g., surface solar radiation and its direct/diffuse components, wind speed/direction at multiple vertical levels, and precipitation, of interest for the run-off-river hydropower), as well as the widely used climatic/meteorological variables (e.g., temperature, pressure, humidity, etc.) at a temporal resolution varying from a day up to 30 minutes. All the data are available through an open-access data server, where an intelligent algorithm is applied to simplify the download process for data users. For the first time, a long-term, high-resolution climate/meteorological dataset covering Reunion and Mauritius has been simulated and published as open-access data, yielding substantial benefits to studies on climate modeling, weather forecasting, and even those related to climate change in the SWIO region. In particular, this dataset will enable a better understanding of the temporal and spatial characteristics of intermittent climate-related energy resources, consequently facilitating their implementation towards a green and low-carbon future.
ABSTRACT
The observational data described in this article are collected at several locations in the South-West Indian Ocean (SWIO). Platforms equipped with radiometers and a weather transmitter, and located over Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, La Réunion and Seychelles islands, are used to measure incident global and diffuse shortwave radiation and incident global UV A + B-band radiation along with air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, air pressure and rainfall amount with a sampling frequency of 0.1 Hz. The data are stored as 1-min averages and automatically transmitted to the LE2P-ENERGY lab at the University of La Réunion. The dataset is hosted on the website: https://galilee.univ-reunion.fr, and is uploaded to Zenodo repository. Such a dataset will help in providing information related to solar energy forecasting and assessment for solar energy implementation at a regional and national level in the SWIO.
