Wave and Anemometer-based Sea Surface Wind (WASWind)

To correct this bias, we construct a new sea surface wind dataset from ship observations of wind speed and wind wave height archived in the International Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set (ICOADS). The Wave and Anemometer-based Sea-surface Wind (WASWind) dataset is available at monthly resolution on a 4 degrees by 4 degrees. longitude-latitude grid from 1950 to 2011.

It substantially reduces the upward trend in wind speed through height-correction for anemometer-measured winds, rejection of spurious Beaufort winds, and use of estimated winds from wind wave height. The reduced upward trend is smallest among the existing global datasets of in situ observations and comparable with those of reanalysis products. Despite the significant reduction of globally-averaged wind speed trend, WASWind features rich spatial structures in trend pattern, making it a valuable dataset for studies of climate changes on regional scales.