Changes in ocean surface wind with a focus on trends in regional and monthly mean values

Abstract

Data collected from ships and satellites has frequently been used to estimate trends in surface wind speed. Although these data sets consistently show an increase in global average wind speed over recent decades, the magnitude of this increase varies depending on the data source used. Observations of the ocean surface by satellites, namely altimeter and SSM/I, provide reasonably long datasets with global coverage. These well calibrated and validated datasets are analysed for linear trends of regional mean monthly time series and mean time series for each calendar month over the period from 1991 to 2008. Differences between the resulting trends are investigated and discussed. The data indicat..