Improvements to the Cross-Calibrated Multi-Platform (CCMP) Vector Wind Dataset for Tropical Studies

The Cross-Calibrated Multi-Platform (CCMP) vector wind dataset combines measurements from microwave satellites with a background field from a numerical weather model to provide globally complete maps of oceanic wind every 6 hours. We are making improvement to the analysis that will improve the quality of the CCMP winds, particularly for tropical studies. These improvements include making adjustments for ocean currents so that the winds accurately represent winds even in regions with large current velocity, adjusting scatterometer winds for the influence of light rain, and making sure that the overall bias between the satellite measurements and the background field are minimized before they are combined. We have also investigated the impacts of withholding in-situ wind measurements from buoys from the analysis which has implications for forcing ocean models. CCMP wind analyses with and without the inclusion of buoy winds are available for assessment. We will show that CCMP provides a good representation of dynamic wind features, such as westerly wind bursts, that are thought to be important for triggering ENSO events in the tropical Pacific.