Corrections to wind speed and direction above water on buoy product (DP1.20059.001)

Corrections were made to wind direction statistics in provisional data (collected Jan 2020 and after). Corrections to the full dataset will be released in January 2023 as part of RELEASE-2023.

Errors were discovered in the computation of wind direction statistics (mean, variance, expanded uncertainty, and standard error of the mean) from NEON’s propellor and vane anemometers on lake and river buoys (DP1.00059.001). All sites and time periods were impacted. The errors predominantly impacted wind directions at low wind speed (< 0.5 m/s), in which the wind direction should have been reported as 0° by convention. This convention was not being followed in the algorithm after adding offsets for sensor and boom orientations specific to each site, causing offsets from the 0° convention by up to 180°. Additionally, the same 5-10° error in mean wind direction impacting northerly winds as reported for the 2D Wind Speed and Direction product also applied to this product. In addition to the above-mentioned impacts on mean wind direction, corrections to the data product algorithm resulted in increases in wind direction variance, standard error of the mean, and expanded uncertainty by approximately 2 orders of magnitude, 1 order of magnitude, and 10%, respectively.

Provisional data (collected Jan 2020 and after) have been corrected and are available for download as of this data notification. Corrections to the full dataset will be published in January 2023 as part of RELEASE-2023.