WORLD METEOROLOGICAL INTERGOVERNMENTAL OCEANOGRAPHIC ORGANIZATION COMMISSION (OF UNESCO) JOINT WMO/IOC TECHNICAL COMMISSION FOR OCEANOGRAPHY AND MARINE METEOROLOGY ADVANCES IN THE APPLICATIONS OF MARINE CLIMATOLOGY The Dynamic Part of the WMO Guide to the Applications of Marine Meteorology WMO/TD-No. 1081 2003 JCOMM Technical Report No. 13 WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION INTERGOVERNMENTAL OCEANOGRAPHIC COMMISSION (OF UNESCO) ADVANCES IN THE APPLICATIONS OF MARINE CLIMATOLOGY The Dynamic Part of the WMO Guide to the Applications of Marine Meteorology WMO/TD-No. 1081 2003 JCOMM Technical Report No. 13 N O T E The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariats of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (of UNESCO), and the World Meteorological Organization concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. TABLE OF CONTENTS FOREWORD . v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . vi INTRODUCTION . vii SECTION 1 MARINE DATABASE ENHANCEMENTS . 1 COADS updates and the blend with the UK Met Office Marine Data Bank . 3 The Kobe Collection: newly digitized Japanese historical surface marine meteorological observations . 11 An archive of underway surface meteorology data from WOCE . 20 SECTION 2: EVALUATION OF MARINE DATA SOURCES . 26 The accuracy of marine surface winds from ships and buoys . 27 Report on Beaufort equivalent scales . 41 Evaluation of ocean winds and waves from voluntary observing ship data . 53 Evaluation of NCEP reanalysis surface marine wind fields for ocean wave hindcasts . 68 SECTION 3: METADATA AND DATA QUALITY . 87 Improving global flux climatology: the role of metadata . 89 Establishing more truth in true winds . 98 Quality control in recent and pending COADS releases . 116 SECTION 4: DEVELOPMENT AND USE OF SATELLITE MARINE DATABASES . 125 An intercomparison of voluntary observing, satellite data, and modelling wave climatologies . 127 The joint calibration of altimeter and in situ wave heights . 139 On the use of in situ and satellite wave measurements for evaluation of wave hindcasts . 149 Scatterometry data sets: high quality winds over water . 159 SECTION 5: ANALYSIS OF CLIMATE VARIABILITY AND CHANGE . 175 Outlier detection in gridded ship data sets . 177 A methodology for integrating wave data from different sources permitting a multiscale description of wave climate variability . 187 Reduced space approach to the optimal analysis of historical marine observations: accomplishments, difficulties, and prospects . 199 Analysis of wave climate trends and variability . 217 SECTION 6: USER REQUIREMENTS FOR CLIMATE INFORMATION . 227 Offshore industry requirements and recent metocean technology developments . 229 Specific contributions to the observing system: sea surface temperatures . 234 Importance of marine data to seasonal forecasting in Australia . 242 iii FOREWORD The Commission for Marine Meteorology (CMM), now known as the Joint WMO/IOC Technical Commission for Oceanography and Marine Meteorology (JCOMM), agreed at its twelfth session (Havana, Cuba, 10–20 March 1997) that the Guide to the Applications of Marine Climatology (WMO-No. 781) should, in future, comprise two distinct sections, namely a static part and a dynamic part, to enhance its utility and facilitate the updating process. The static part, the existing Guide, WMO-No. 781, would remain unchanged, while the dynamic part would be updated approximately every four years. In keeping with this agreement, the session supported a proposal to convene a self-funding workshop to provide input for the dynamic part of the Guide. The workshop, CLIMAR99 – WMO International Workshop on Advances in Marine Climatology, took place in September 1999 in Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada, and was hosted by the Meteorological Service of Canada, with additional sponsorship from WMO, NOAA’s Office of Global Programs (OGP) and the National Weather Service (NWS), NOAA, USA. Several papers presented to the workshop were subsequently peer-reviewed. The first session of JCOMM (Akureyri, Iceland, 19–29 June 2001) recommended that these papers, as well as a paper on Beaufort equivalent scales by Mr Ralf Lindau (Germany), which was requested by the twelfth session of CMM, be published as the dynamic part of the Guide. The present technical document contains all of these papers, reproduced in their revised form following the peer review process. It thus essentially represents the dynamic part of the Guide to the Applications of Marine Climatology. It is intended that this dynamic component should be updated again on the basis of papers presented at a second CLIMAR workshop. The coordination and organization of CLIMAR99, as well as the compilation of this report, were undertaken largely by Mr Val Swail (Canada). On behalf of WMO, I would like to express my gratitude and appreciation to Mr Swail and to all those who contributed to the workshop and this report. (G.O.P. Obasi) Secretary-General v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Among the many to whom thanks are due, first and foremost are those who have contributed their time and effort in preparing for the CLIMAR99 Workshop and compiling this report, for example, Val Swail (Canada), Joe Elms (USA), Henry Diaz (USA) and all the authors of the papers contained in this report. Also to be thanked are the individuals who have contributed without being named specifically. Workshop participants and session chairs are thanked for their important contribution to the workshop discussions and/or effective manage- ment of the workshop programme. Members of the former WMO Commission for Marine Meteorology and its Subgroup on Marine Climatology are also thanked for their support. The cooperation and support given to CLIMAR99 by the following organiza- tions is gratefully acknowledged: the Meteorological Service of Canada; the Office of Global Programs, NOAA (USA), and its Environmental Services Data and Information Management program; the National Weather Service, NOAA (USA); and the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (USA). Last but not least, thanks are due to the support staff of the above-mentioned organizations for their patient efforts in preparing for the Workshop and compil- ing this report, in particular Eileen Jeffers (Canada), Maria Carney (Canada) and the technical editing staff of the WMO Secretariat. vi INTRODUCTION PURPOSE AND The purpose of this report is to provide all Members with access to new technol- BACKGROUND OF THIS ogy related to marine climatology and emerging issues such as climate change. REPORT The WMO Guide to the Applications of Marine Climatology (WMO-No. 781) was published in early 1995. However, much of the material in the Guide was written based on knowledge and information available up until around 1992. Since then, there has been a significant amount of research carried out by national agencies in a number of Member countries. Initiatives such as the Comprehensive Ocean- Atmosphere Data Set (COADS) Wind Workshop in 1994 (held in Kiel, Germany) have also contributed much valuable information on marine climatology. As a result, the Subgroup on Marine Climatology of the former WMO Commission for Marine Meteorology (CMM), in developing a plan and proce- dures to maintain the Guide as up-to-date as possible, decided to adopt the basic approach now being implemented for the Guide to Climatological Practices, namely that it would comprise two parts: (i) A static part, which would be expected to remain valid over a relatively long time- frame, and which could be maintained as a hard-copy publication; (ii) A second, more dynamic part covering matters relating to new technologies and emerging issues such as climate change which could be made available in digital form on the World Wide Web. The Subgroup on Marine Climatology proposed that the most effective way to provide up-to-date information for the dynamic part of the Guide would be through a WMO-sponsored workshop, to be held in 1999, focusing on specific technologies and issues, the Proceedings of which would be made available initially on the World Wide Web, and eventually in hard copy. The issues of particular importance at that time were deemed to be climate change and impacts on the marine industry, the use of satellite data in climate applications, and issues related to retrospective data, metadata and the production of long-term homoge- neous data sets for climate analysis. At the twelfth session of CMM (Havana, Cuba, 10-20 March 1997), a recom- mendation was made for WMO to organize a self-funding workshop, to serve primarily as a means for generating appropriate input for the dynamic part of the Guide to the Applications of Marine Climatology. The Commission requested the president of CMM, and the chairman of the Subgroup, in consultation with the Secretary-General, to take the necessary actions for convening the Workshop, in particular the task of finding a host country and potential external sponsors. Subsequently, Canada volunteered to host the Workshop and appointed Mr Val Swail to take the lead in its organiza- tion. An informal meeting was held on 18 September 1997 in Toledo, Spain, immediately after the Workshop on Digitization and Preparation of Historical Surface Marine Data and Metadata, to initiate the planning of the Workshop. A Workshop Organizing Committee, consisting of Mr Val Swail (Canada, Chair), Mr Joe Elms (USA), Mr Henry Diaz (USA)