Separation of Wind-Sea and Swell Wave Heights Using Altimeter Data

Space-borne radar altimeters can provide global data of significant wave height (SWH) of total waves, including wind-sea and swells. But wind-seas and swells are often separately considered in the fields of marine science and marine engineering. In this study, a wind-sea-swell SWH separation model was developed using the simultaneous 10-m wind speed and SWH measurement, which are available from altimeter data. The model was based on a look up table extrapolated by an artificial neural network trained by the insitu data from National Data Buoy Center. After applying the model to altimeter data, the results showed that the accuracy of the model is fairly good with a root-mean-square error of wind-sea/swell SWH of only ~0.5 m. This method provides a new method to investigate global wind-sea and swell using remote sensing data.