This paper analyzed time-series variation and spatial distribution characteristics of wind resources at the eastern edge of Qaidam Basin based on the wind resources gradient automatic observation system. Wind resources are relatively abundant in the study area, the cumulative number of hours of wind speed between 3–25m s -1 are more than 6600, equal to 275 days, exceeding 75% of total annual hours. Advantage wind velocity spectrum was in the scope of 3–9m s -1 at all gradients and the peak value of wind speed was 4–6m s -1 . Differences in the wind speed frequency distribution at other gradients were not apparent except for the 10m gradient. Compared with other layers, the occurrence frequency of small wind at the level of 10m was higher, while the occurrence frequency of wind speed between 6 and 12m s -1 was higher at other layers. The advantage wind direction in this area was northwest and the wind speed difference was not obvious. Wind speed and wind power density gradually increased with the increasing height, and differences among sites were apparent. The average wind turbulence intensity was 0.199 at each layer and the average shear index was 0.075; turbulence intensity and shear index gradually reduced from over a 10–70m gradient. Turbulence intensity had the same variation tendency as local temperature, whereby a high temperature corresponded to high turbulence and low temperature to low turbulence. The variation tendency of shear index was opposite to that for turbulence intensity; turbulence intensity gradually decreased from lower layers to top layers and shear index was most obvious between 10–30m. Turbulence intensity at each site at each level was between 0.10–0.25, and of medium intensity. These data will provide a technical gist for the layout of wind farms and the utilization of wind power resource at ground level throughout the study region.
