NASA scatterometer provides global ocean-surface wind fields with more structures than numerical weather prediction

The major differences between monthly-mean ocean-surface wind fields derived from the observations of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Scatterometer (NSCAT) and produced by the operational numerical weather prediction (NWP) model of the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts are found in coastal and equatorial regions, where the sharp changes are smoothed over in NWP products; these wind differences are explained to be the result of the superior spatial resolution of NSCAT winds. Objective interpolation of NSCAT data alleviates errors caused by the uneven satellite sampling and retains greater energy content of NSCAT winds at high wavenumbers.