Accounting for surface wave distortion of the marine wind profile in low-level Ocean Storms wind measurements

Marine wind measurements at three heights (3.0, 4.5 and 5.0 m) from both moored and drifting buoys during the Ocean Storms experiment are described. These winds are compared with each other, with winds from ships, from subsurface ambient acoustic noise, and from the analyses of three numerical weather prediction centers. In the mean, wind directions generally differ by only a small constant offset of a few degrees. No wave influence on the wind direction is evident, because the differences are not systematic and, with few exceptions, they are less than the expected error. After correcting for some apparent calibration and instrument bias, the Ocean Storms wind speeds display similar behaviour when compared to the analyzed wind products. -from Authors