Characterizing Coastal Wind Speed and Significant Wave Height Using Satellite Altimetry and Buoy Data

Abstract

Wind speed and significant wave height are the most relevant metocean variables that support a wide range of engineering and economic activities. Their characterization through remote sensing estimations is required to compensate for the shortage of in situ observations. This study demonstrates the value of satellite altimetry to identify typical spatial patterns of wind speed and significant wave height in the northeastern region of the United States. Data from five altimetry satellite missions were evaluated against the available in situ observations with a 10 km sampling radius and a 30 min time window. An objective analysis of the collective altimeter dataset was performed to create aggregated composite maps of the wind speed and significant wave height. This asynchronous compositing of multi-mission altimeter data is introduced to compile a sufficient sampling of overpasses over the area of interest. The results of this approach allow for quantifying spatial patterns for the wind speed and significant wave height in the summer and winter seasons. The quality of altimeter estimations was assessed regarding the distance from the coast and the topography. It was found that while the altimeter data are highly accurate for the two variables, bias increases near the coast. The average minimum and maximum wind speed values detected in buoy stations less than 40 km from the coast were not matched by the aggregated altimeter time series. The method exposes the spatial and time gaps to be filled using data from future missions. The challenges of the objective analysis near the coast, especially in semi-enclosed areas, and the implications of the altimeter estimations due to the land contamination are explained. The results indicate that the combination of altimetry data from multiple satellite missions provides a significant complementary information resource for nearshore and coastal wind and wave regime estimations.