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The distribution and variability of surface winds in the seas and straits in the Maritime Continent, or the Indonesian seas, are investigated using scatterometer wind measurements and reanalysis wind data. This study focuses on the detailed climatology of surface winds in the Indonesian seas and has significant implications for a better understanding of regional climate, meteorological disasters, and offshore wind resource. The monsoon winds predominantly blow over the seas along the routes formed by the coastlines of the large islands and the chains of the small islands. The wind speeds are persistently strong along these routes, and the major direction of the variability in winds is well aligned with these routes. The wind jets are formed in the central part of the routes. The interisland gaps and channels form wind jets of various scales. The Australian winter monsoon is stronger and more persistent than the East Asian winter monsoon in the Indonesian seas. The onset of each monsoon differs by approximately 40 days between the east and west of the Indonesian seas. The amplitudes and spatial extents of diurnally varying winds dominate along the northern coasts of Java Island and the small islands to the east, along the northwest and northeast coasts of Borneo, along the coast of southern Sulawesi Island, and to the southwest of Papua, and vanish along the centre lines of the monsoon routes. Sea areas with a large amplitude of diurnally varying wind are much the same throughout the year. The amplitude of diurnally varying wind has an annual maximum in September in the southern Indonesian seas, possibly in correspondence with the annual maximum of the temperature difference between land and sea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]