A comparison of various equatorial pacific surface wind products

Daily 2009 surface winds from five model, remotely-sensed, and reanalysis wind products are compared with measurements from three fixed mooring buoys located in the west equatorial Pacific (0°N, 165°E), the central equatorial Pacific (0°N, 170°W), and the eastern-central equatorial Pacific Ocean (0°N, 140°W). The cross-correlation coefficients between these five wind products and the buoy winds are all statistically significant at the 95% confidence level, ranging from 0.77 to 0.97 for the zonal winds and 0.45 to 0.93 for the meridional winds. However, a systematic positive/negative bias was found in wind directions in all wind products at the central/eastern central Pacific Ocean, which could have an impact on local wind stress curl field in the region.