Flight paths of seabirds soaring over the ocean surface enable measurement of fine-scale wind speed and direction.

ABSTRACT: Ocean surface winds are an essential factor in understanding the physical interactions between the atmosphere and the ocean. Surface winds measured by satellite scatterometers and buoys cover most of the global ocean; however, there are still spatial and temporal gaps and finer-scale variations of wind that may be overlooked, particularly in coastal areas. Here, we show that flight paths of soaring seabirds can be used to estimate fine-scale (every 5 min, ∼5 km) ocean surface winds. Fine-scale global positioning system (GPS) positional data revealed that soaring seabirds flew tortuously and ground speed fluctuated presumably due to tail winds and head winds. Taking advantage of the ground speed difference in relation to flight direction, we reliably estimated wind speed and direction exper

SUBMITTER: Yonehara Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4987799 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature