The effect of ship shape and anemometer location on wind speed measurements obtained from ships

Wind speed measurements obtained from ship-mounted anemometers are biased by the distortion of the airflow around the ship's hull and superstructure. These wind speed measurements are used both in numerical weather prediction and in climate studies and need to be known as accurately as possible. This paper presents results from threedimensional CFD studies of the mean airflow over various research ships and a generic tanker/bulk. It will be shown that the bias in the wind speed measurements is highly dependent upon anemometer position and ship shape. CFD results are compared to in situ wind speed measurementsmade from a number of anemometers above the bridge of the RRS Charles Darwin.