ACE Expedition: Corrected Wind Velocity from Antarctic Circumnavigation

Five-minute averaged horizontal wind velocity data from the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition (ACE) 2016/2017 legs 0 to 4 has been corrected for air-flow distortion. The dataset combines port and starboard anemometer measurements via vector averaging and estimates ten-meter neutral wind speed using ERA-5 surface heat fluxes and the COARE 3.5 drag coefficient. It provides a continuous, high-resolution record of wind speed and direction along the ship's track.

Use Cases

• Validating atmospheric and climate models based on high-resolution, corrected wind observations.
• Studying air-sea interaction dynamics in the Southern Ocean using the estimated ten-meter neutral wind speed (U10N).
• Analyzing temporal wind patterns and variability along the Antarctic coastline from the five-minute resolution time series.
• Calibrating remote sensing data or other ship-based measurements using the distortion-corrected wind velocity record.

Strengths

• Data is corrected for air-flow distortion, a known source of error in ship-based measurements.
• Provides a continuous, high-resolution record at a five-minute temporal resolution.
• Combines measurements from two anemometers (port and starboard) via vector averaging for improved accuracy.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as row count, column names, and specific file size are unknown across all sources.
• The exact temporal coverage is limited to 'legs 0 to 4' of the 2016/2017 expedition without specific start/end dates.
• Relies on interpolation of ERA-5 reanalysis data for U10N estimation, introducing a dependency on model outputs.

Provenance

Source

Sebastian Landwehr, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Collection Method

Ship-based anemometer measurements from the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition (ACE), processed and corrected.

Time Range

2016/2017 (specific dates for legs 0-4 not provided)

Geography

Southern Ocean, Antarctic circumnavigation route