Winds occur due to gradients in atmospheric pressure and play an important role in controlling climate and weather. Wind data have been used by NOAA scientists to assess the relationship between physical and biological factors and interannual variability of fish recruitment (Hermann et. al., 1996, Megrey et. al., 1995, Bailey and Macklin, 1994).

Data:

Pacific Ocean:

• ERS-2 scatterometer and SSM/I data (current global wind field maps and archived maps, Ocean Physical Processes Team, NOAA/NESDIS/ORA/OPPT)
• Medium Range MRF Forecasts for the Northern Hemisphere (NCEP forecast model, IGES)
• NCEP OMB Global Wind and Wave Model Output (Pacific Ocean wind forecasts based on NCEP analysis and aviation data NOAA/OMB)
• Pacific Ocean (Dept. of Meteorology, University of Hawaii)

Western Pacific Ocean:

• NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) Daily wind report (Animations of wind patterns over the Northeast Pacific based on previous 26 hours of data)
• National Space Development Agency of Japan's Earth Observation Research Center (NASDA/EORC): Data from ADEOS

Educational Links:

• Forces and Winds (WW2010 Weather World Project, Dept of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champain)
• Land and Sea Breezes (University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center)
• Rough-surface Scattering Theory (NOAA/OAR/ERL/ETL)
• The Beaufort Scale (National Weather Service NWS)
• What is Scatterometry? (NASA)

PMEL Publications on Wind:

Listed below are direct links to abstracts of PMEL articles relating to wind beginning 1968 to the present, using PMEL's Publication Information Search Engine:

• wind - North Pacific Ocean
• wind - Bering Sea
• wind - Gulf of Alaska