VERIFICATION AND COMPARISON OF WIND SPEEDAND SIGNIFFICANT WAVE HEIGHT FROMTOPEX/POSEIDON AND JASON-1
Cheng Yongcun 1) ; Xu Qing 2) ; Liu Yuguang 3) ; Li Chongyin 1,4) ; and Gu Yanzheng 3)
1)Institute of Meteorology, PLA University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 2111012)Institute of Space and Earth Information Science，The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong3)Physical Oceanography Laboratory, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 2660034)LASG, Institute of Atmospheric Physics,CAS, Beijing 100029
Abstract The data of significant wave height(SWH) measured by satellite altimeter TOPEX/POSEIDON(T/P) are compared,i.e. verified,with the data synchronous measured by buoys and the monthly mean data.It is found that there is a linear relationship between them. The comparison indicates that the difference between measurements by buoys and T/P can be reduced by selecting narrower space window and longer sequence. There is a systematic error of 0.3 m between significant wave height (SWH) obtained from buoys and T/P in the selected region. The correction functions are also obtained by comparing T/P measurements with Jason1 measurements. The results show that the difference in normalized radar backscatter cross section from the two altimeters is larger in low wind speed conditions than that in at high wind speed conditions, that is caused by sea state and instrument noise. In addition, the SWH and sea surface height anomaly (SSHA) from T/P and Jason1 are also compared. The root mean square errors for the SWH and SSHA are 0.21 m and 0.05 m, respectively.
