Light paths of seabirds soaring over the ocean surface enable measurement of fine-scale wind speed and direction - Archive ouverte HAL Accéder directement au contenu
Article Dans Une Revue Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Année : 2016

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

Résumé

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 experienced by the birds. These birdbased wind velocities were significantly correlated with wind velocities estimated by satellite-borne scatterometers. Furthermore, extensive travel distances and flight duration of the seabirds enabled a wide range of high-resolution wind observations, especially in coastal areas. Our study suggests that seabirds provide a platform from which to measure ocean surface winds, potentially complementing conventional wind measurements by covering spatial and temporal measurement gaps.

Dates et versions

hal-01347139 , version 1 (20-07-2016)

Identifiants

Citer

Y. Yonehara, Y. Goto, K. Yoda, Y. Watanuik, L. C. Young, et al.. Light paths of seabirds soaring over the ocean surface enable measurement of fine-scale wind speed and direction. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2016, 113 (32), pp.9039-9044. ⟨10.1073/pnas.1523853113⟩. ⟨hal-01347139⟩
85 Consultations
0 Téléchargements

Altmetric

Partager

Gmail Mastodon Facebook X LinkedIn More