Wind Trek Link to heading

Project Description Link to heading

The goal of this project is to estimate wind trajectories (forward and backward) from any chosen point on the globe using global meteorological data.

In its initial study, Wind Trek utilized average climatological wind trajectories for two locations in Mato Grosso, Brazil: Lucas do Rio Verde and Querência. The results highlighted a fascinating finding: although these municipalities are geographically close, nearly on the same latitude and at similar distances from the Amazon rainforest, they experience significantly different agricultural conditions. This difference is due to the origin of the winds affecting each region. During critical planting and harvest months—September, October, March, and April—Lucas do Rio Verde receives moist winds from the lush Xingu Indian Reservation, supporting two crop cycles per year, while Querência experiences winds from arid, deforested areas, resulting in only one crop cycle annually.

Project Details Link to heading

Currently, the application utilizes ERA-Interim input meteorological data, a global atmospheric reanalysis dataset spanning from 1979 to the present day. This dataset is a 4-dimensional NetCDF (*.nc) file that compresses essential meteorological data such as horizontal and vertical wind speed, humidity, and temperature.

The application reads the input file and computes wind trajectories (forward or backward) based on user-specified location and date-time. Outputs include either an image displaying the mapped trajectories or a CSV file detailing trajectory time, location, and additional parameters.

Process Flow Diagram Link to heading

This diagram illustrates the Wind Trek workflow: input files in NetCDF format (*.nc) are processed through the Wind Trek application, producing outputs in PNG (image) and CSV (data table) formats.

Video Demonstration Link to heading

A brief demonstration video showing Wind Trek in action, highlighting its capabilities and output.

Screenshot Link to heading

A screenshot displaying the application interface and a sample wind trajectory output.