Wind speed, or wind flow velocity, is a fundamental atmospheric quantity.
Wind speed is caused by air moving from high pressure to low pressure, usually due to changes in temperature. Note that wind direction is usually almost parallel to isobars (and not perpendicular as one might expect), due to the rotation of the earth.
Wind speed affects weather forecasting, aircraft and maritime operations, construction projects, growth and metabolism rate of many plant species, and countless other implications.
Wind speed is now commonly measured with an anemometer but can also be classified using the older Beaufort scale which is based on people's observation of specifically defined wind effects.
@wikipedia
The wind speed layer is static; users can consult it, for instance, to optimise wind energy production.
Return to environmental conditions.
Marine Copernicus Services
Global Ocean Wind L4 Reprocessed Monthly Mean Observations.
The original dataset is a "time series of monthly averaged wind variables calculated over the global oceans. It is estimated from daily global wind fields calculated from retrievals derived from ASCAT scatterometers onboard METOP-A and METOP-B satellites. It consists of six variables including monthly averaged wind speed, zonal and meridional wind components, wind stress amplitude and the associated components. They are calculated as arithmetic means of ASCAT daily wind analyses. The gridded daily wind and wind stress fields have been estimated over global oceans from Metop/ASCAT retrievals using the objective method. The daily analyses use standard products ASCAT L2b during the period April 2007 to present. Wind stress and the related components are estimated over swaths based on the use of Coare3.0 parameterization. The resulting daily fields are estimated as equivalent neutral-stability 10-m winds, and have spatial resolutions of 0.25° in longitude and latitude over global ocean. The objective method provides also errors characterizing the quality of each daily wind parameters at grid cell."
For more information please refer to the datasource description at Copernicus Marine Services
NA. Retrieved on 2017/10.
The datalayer was prepared by calculating the 10m height wind speed average for 2016. The data layer was clipped to the North Sea area and reprojected to Lambert's Azimuthal Equal Area (EPSG:3035) projection.
In the Baltic Sea the potential for creating energy from the wind is represented by the wind density, expressed on kW/m2.
In the Western Baltic Sea the potential for creating energy from the wind is represented by the wind density, expressed on kW/m2.
Not applicable.
This layer is not available in the Clyde Marine Region Edition.
In the Adriatic Sea there are 3 layers representing the wind speed (wind intensity) at different heights: 25m, 50m, 75m and 100m.
For Italy's EEZ the data source was ATLANTE EOLICO INTERATTIVO, for the rest of the Adriatic Sea, the data comes from Copernicus Marine Service.
NA. Data provided by project partners.
2021-02-19.
The layers were implemented as provided by the project partner.
This layers depicts the average wind speed for the period between 1 August 1999 to 1 November 2023.
Global Ocean Monthly Mean Sea Surface Wind and Stress from Scatterometer and Model.
For the Global Ocean - The product contains monthly Level-4 sea surface wind and stress fields at 0.25 degrees horizontal spatial resolution. The monthly averaged wind and stress fields are based on monthly average ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis fields, corrected for persistent biases using all available Level-3 scatterometer observations from the Metop-A, Metop-B and Metop-C ASCAT, QuikSCAT SeaWinds, ERS-1 and ERS-2 SCAT satellite instruments. The product provides monthly mean stress-equivalent wind and stress variables as well as their standard deviation. The number of observations used to calculate the monthly averages are included in the product.
DOI (product): https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00181
Identifier: WIND_GLO_PHY_CLIMATE_L4_MY_012_003
Temporal extent: 1 Aug 1999 to 1 Nov 2023
2024-03-20.
The Eastward wind and Northward wind components were used to calculate the wind speed and the average wind speed for the temporal extent was calculated.
Co-funded by the European Union.