Surface Wind Speed and Direction

A stormy beach scene with strong winds bending palm trees. A factsheet titled "Surface Wind Speed and Direction" from the Global Climate Observing System is displayed over the image.
Surface winds drive the exchange of momentum between the atmosphere and ocean, producing ocean waves and provides a key forcing of the ocean circulation responsible for the global transport of important amounts of heat and carbon. Extreme winds have huge social and economic impacts, most obviously during hurricanes and tropical cyclones, leading to loss of human life, damage to ecosystems, the destruction of infrastructure and loss of shipping.

Surface Wind Speed Trends

Figure: Estimates of Land surface wind speed anomalies (m s−1) for 1973–2016, relative to 1981–2010: HadISD2 for the globe (excluding Australia) and 4 regions; Australia (1974–2016) is based on an Australian dataset. ERA-interim (1979–2016) and MERRA-2 (1980–2016) anomalies, also shown, cover all land areas.

ECV Products and Requirements

These products and requirements reflect the Implementation Plan 2022 (GCOS-244).

The requirements are found in the complete 2022 ECVs Requirements document as well: ECV Surface Wind Speed and Direction.

Products  Wind Direction (near surface)  Wind Speed (near surface)Wind Vector (near surface)
 (*)UnitValues UnitValuesValues
Horizontal ResolutionGkm10 km1010
B100 100100
T500 500500
Vertical ResolutionG -  --
B- --
T- --
Temporal ResolutionGh<1 h< 1<1
B1 11
T3 33
TimelinessGh6 h66
B24 2424
T720 720720
Required Measurement Uncertainty (2-sigma)Gdegrees1 m s-10.10.1
B5 0.50.5
T10 11
StabilityGdegrees/ decade1 m s-1/ decade0.10.1
B2 0.250.25
T5 0.50.5

(*) Goal (G): an ideal requirement above which further improvements are not necessary. Breakthrough (B): an intermediate level between threshold and goal which, if achieved, would result in a significant improvement for the targeted application. The breakthrough value may also indicate the level at which specified uses within climate monitoring become possible. It may be appropriate to have different breakthrough values for different uses. Threshold (T): the minimum requirement to be met to ensure that data are useful

Data sources

This list provides sources for openly accessible data sets with worldwide coverage for which metadata is available. It is curated by the respective GCOS ECV Steward(s). The list does not claim to be complete. Anyone with a suitable dataset who wishes it to be added to this list should contact the abombelliatwmo [dot] int (GCOS Secretariat).

In Situ:

  • Integrated Surface Database (ISD) of the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
  • Global Historical Climatology Network Daily (GHCN-Daily) of the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
  • Hadley Centre Integrated Surface Database (HadISD)
  • International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set (ICOADS)
  • Wave and Anemometer-based Sea Surface Wind (WASWind)


Reanalysis:


Satellite:

  • Satellite ECV Inventory by the CEOS/CGMS Working Group on Climate (WGClimate)
Surface wind speed
Domain:
Atmosphere
Subdomain:
Surface
Scientific Area:
Physical Properties
ECV Steward:
Products:
Wind Direction, Wind Speed, Wind Vector