<p>For the near-surface winds over the ocean, many model products and satellite footprints have spatial resolutions on the order of tens of kilometers. I'm interested in knowing how much the winds (both magnitude and direction) are expected to vary over tens of kilometers, at a single instant in time. </p>

<p>Of course, this will depend on a variety of factors - such as if a storm is passing by, distance from the coastline, precipitation etc. I'd be happy to hear about rough numbers in all conditions, but I'm especially interested in the open ocean in both hurricane and non-hurricane conditions.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-10-18T06:47:26.647Z
Thanks @Friddy - I logged in and saw your comment just now. I'm going through the links...but I'm wondering if there are models or theories on even finer, sub-kilometer grid variability, say on the order of meters, 10's, and 100's of meters. I'm mostly interested in the horizontal (u and v) winds.
user4624937
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-10-20T09:02:03.297Z
Okay - I'll look into these wind models. One question @Friddy: you say "10 km grid is usually sufficient" for marine use - I don't doubt this (this appears to be the consensus in community), but does there in fact exist some justification for this sufficiency? Maybe papers or book chapters you can think of? Thanks in advance.
user4624937
<meteorology><ocean><wind><remote-sensing><atmosphere-modelling>
Spatial variability in ocean surface winds
user4624937
# Spatial variability in ocean surface winds

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-10-13)

For the near-surface winds over the ocean, many model products and satellite footprints have spatial resolutions on the order of tens of kilometers. I'm interested in knowing how much the winds (both magnitude and direction) are expected to vary over tens of kilometers, at a single instant in time.

Of course, this will depend on a variety of factors - such as if a storm is passing by, distance from the coastline, precipitation etc. I'd be happy to hear about rough numbers in all conditions, but I'm especially interested in the open ocean in both hurricane and non-hurricane conditions.

**Tags:** meteorology, ocean, wind, remote-sensing, atmosphere-modelling

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thanks @Friddy - I logged in and saw your comment just now. I'm going through the links...but I'm wondering if there are models or theories on even finer, sub-kilometer grid variability, say on the order of meters, 10's, and 100's of meters. I'm mostly interested in the horizontal (u and v) winds.  
> **username_0**: Okay - I'll look into these wind models. One question @Friddy: you say "10 km grid is usually sufficient" for marine use - I don't doubt this (this appears to be the consensus in community), but does there in fact exist some justification for this sufficiency? Maybe papers or book chapters you can think of? Thanks in advance.  

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## 0 answers

