<title>Application of satellite surface wind data to ocean wind analysis</title>

Abstract

A new set of cross-calibrated, multi-satellite ocean surface wind data is described. The principal data set covers the global ocean for the period beginning in 1987 with six-hour and 25-km resolution, and is produced by combining all ocean surface wind speed observations from SSM/I, AMSR-E, and TMI, and all ocean surface wind vector observations from QuikSCAT and SeaWinds. An enhanced variational analysis method (VAM) performs quality control and combines these data with available conventional ship and buoy data and ECMWF analyses. The VAM analyses fit the data used very closely and contain small-scale structures not present in operational analyses. Comparisons with withheld WindSat observations are also shown to be very good. These data sets should be extremely useful to atmospheric and oceanic research, and to air-sea interaction studies.