OCEAN WINDS

OCEAN WIND
• Ocean wind is defined as the motion of the atmosphere relative
to the surface of the ocean.

• Most common reference height for near surface ocean wind

measurements: 10 meters above sea level.
MEASUREMENT OF OCEAN WIND
In situ
• Buoys, ships or platforms through mechanical anemometer.

Remote Sensing
• Ground-based
– Ground-based Doppler radar: using inbound and outbound radial velocities.
• Airborne
– Passive microwave: based on distinct roughness pattern of ocean surface caused by motion of air above the ocean
surface (“brightness”) which can be only observed by passive microwave radiometers; with right combination
specific microwave wavelengths and processing algorithms, the “brightness” can be translated to near-surface
wind speed. E.g. SSM/I, SSMIS, TMI, AMSR-2, AMSR-E, GMI.
– Active microwave: based on the characteristic of centimetre-scale ocean surface waves known as capillary waves
(Bragg scattering) which can be observed by specifically tuned airborne radars. These airborne radars transmit
microwave pulses of energy to the ocean surface, which immediately scatters a portion of the reflected energy back
to the radar. Once the radar cross section is normalized, the near-surface wind speed can be computed as a function
of the backscattered energy. Active radar system can combine measurements from different azimuth angles to derive
the approximate direction of the wind. E.g. WindSat, QuikScat, SeaWinds, ASCAT.
REANALYSIS WIND DATA
• Combination of wind data from in situ and remote sensing wind data into numerical weather
prediction model.

• E.g.
– Climate Forecasting System Reanalysis (CFSR)
– Climate Four Dimensional Data Assimilation (CFDDA)
– Modern Era-Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA)
– National Centres for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)/ National Centre for Atmospheric Research
(NCAR) Reanalysis
– European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecast (ECMWF) Reanalysis (ERA-Interim)
• Global atmospheric reanalysis from 1979, continuously updated in real time.
• 128 available atmospheric parameters.