Winds and Waves on the Oceans Are Getting (Slightly) Stronger Every Year

Ocean winds and waves are getting just a little stronger each year due to climate change. (Credit: Leo Roomets/Unsplash) In the world of climate science — and science in general — data is king. The more of it you have, and the higher its quality, the better. And while such trends as the rise in temperatures and sea levels have impeccable data behind them, not every measure of a changing climate has been so lucky. Take the global wind and wave climate, for example, which measures trends in wind speed and wave height in oceans around the globe. Both of these factors affect the interplay between the atmosphere and ocean of both energy and carbon (more winds equal choppier waters, which can get in the way of air-to-water energy transfers), and of course higher waves could spell more trouble during storm surges and affect flooding levels. But it had been historically tricky to get reliable long-term data on these phenomena to study any possible trends. Until now, that is. A paper in Science today uses satellite data to analyze wind speed and wave height over more than 30 years, and concluded that on average both are increasing, especially in the southern hemisphere, and especially during extreme conditions like storms. They also demonstrated a useful way to study these things in the first place, which should prove helpful to scientists moving forward.