Isotropic and anisotropic correlations in turbulent wind speed data

The correlations in turbulent wind speed data from the open ocean are studied. They are calculated as Fourier transforms of the spectraldensities, which are computed from Fourier transforms of the measured windspeed components. All correlations are found to decay within a few seconds.It is shown that the spectra are most efficiently calculated using data sections whose length does not exceed the observed correlation decay time.Longer runs include more random noise without containing more information.The ratio of the along-wind to transverse spectral levels is investigatedand found to be in excellent agreement with the assumption of isotropy inthe inertial wave number range.