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Atmospheric & Surface Winds

Other Names

Wind, Wind Speed, Zonal wind, Meridional Wind, u & v Flux, Surface stress velocity

Definition

Air in motion relative to the surface of the Earth.
Since vertical components of atmospheric motion are relatively small, especially near the surface of the earth, meteorologists use the term to denote almost exclusively the horizontal component. Meridional flow is the atmospheric flow in which north south component (i.e. longitudinal, or along a meridian) is pronounced relative to the zonal (east-west) component. The equatorial easterlies, tropical (trade winds) and polar easterlies blow from the east. The westerlies represent the dominant west-to-east motion of the atmosphere centered over the 35-65 degree latituded bands of both hemispsheres.

Applications

(1) Weather Forecast and Data Assimilation Models (4) Aviation Flight Planning
(2) Air-Sea Interactio (5) Naval and Military Operations
(3) Transport of Air Pollutants (6) Climate Change

GES DISC Datasets

Quick Search for 'Atmospheric & Surface Winds' with Mirador
Click on the corresponding 'WHOM access' links in the table below to access products containing specific parameter.

Parameter Units Platform /Instrument Data
Begin Date End Date WHOM Access Doc
(1) zonal (u) and meridional(v) wind speed profiles(at 18 and 20 pressure levels)
(2)U and V at 2 m and 10 m
(3)surface wind speed
(4)surface stress velocity
m/sec NOAA/TOVS 1978-11-30 1995-07-05 NOAA/TOVS Y
Zonal and meridional wind profiles (35 pressure levels covering 10 - 125 km) m/sec UARS/HRDI 1991-11-06 1999-01-30 UARHR3AT Y
UARHR3AL Y
Zonal and meridional wind profiles
(50 pressure levels covering 22 - 400 km)
m/sec UARS/WINDII 1991-11-04 1997-08-19 UARWI3AT Y
UARWI3AL Y
Vertical Velocity (omega), Meridional and Zonal wind Profiles m/sec UARS/Correlative 1991-11-04 1997-08-19 UARZCUKM Y
UARZCNMC Y

Other sources for data



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  • Last updated: May 29, 2008 17:26:44 GMT