Rebecca,
Please see my newly added sticky post about memory requirements: [url]Memory Requirements for full-field wind arrays]
A one-hour simulation with a 41x41 grid will use about 3 GB of RAM in TurbSim and will exceed the 2-GB limit imposed on 32-bit applications. You will need to run a 64-bit version of TurbSim on a 64-bit operating system for such a simulation. If you do not have a 64-bit OS, you will have to use a fewer number of grid points. If you do have a 64-bit OS, but not a 64-bit compiler, let me know and I will make a 64-bit version of TurbSim available for you. Future versions of TurbSim and InflowWind (used by FAST) will cycle through a 10-minute wind array and will eliminate the need for longer arrays. We also plan to distribute 64-bit versions of all our programs along with the current, 32-bit versions.
My calculations show that a a 41x41x3600 array will take about 1.5 GB of RAM in InflowWind, so you won’t need a 64-bit version of FAST to use it.
And yes, it is true that one-hour, high-resolution TurbSim runs take a really long time.