News: Oct 06, 2017
Wind speeds around the world are decreasing in a phenomenon known as "stilling" and scientists are hoping to find out why.
"Weaker winds can mean less dispersion of pollutants in big cities, exacerbating air quality problems and therefore impacting human health", says Cesar Azorin-Molina, researcher at the Department of Earth Sciences, in an interview with the Horizon magazine.
There are probably few people who have actually noticed it, but the world's winds are getting slower. The average wind speed at ground level has decreased by 0.5 kilometers per hour every decade according to data that began to collect in the 1960s.
The phenomenon is known as "stilling", and can be an important piece of the climate change puzzle and a serious threat to our societies.
The researcher Cesar Azorin-Molina at the Department of Geosciences is the research leader in the EU-funded project "STILLING". In an interview with the EU research magazine Horizon, he stresses the importance of understanding why "stilling" occurs. He means that a slower wind speed can have major consequences for humanity.
"There are serious implications of wind changes in areas like agriculture. A declining trend in wind speed can impact long-term power generation", he says to Horizon.
Read more about the STILLING project
Originally published on: gvc.gu.se
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