Standard Presentation 2024 Australian Marine Sciences Association Annual Meeting combined with NZMSS

Comparisons of CFOSAT SWIM Wave Measurements Against Wave Buoys (#66)

Marites Canto 1 , Salman Khan 2
  1. Environment, CSIRO, Townsville, Queensland, Australia
  2. Environment, CSIRO, Aspendale, Victoria, Australia

Radar systems are reliable and efficient means for obtaining measurements in remote and challenging but important oceanic environments like the Southern Ocean (SO). The surface waves investigation and monitoring (SWIM) scatterometer on-board the Chinese-France Oceanography Satellite (CFOSat) is a unique instrument dedicated to measure surface ocean waves at different incidence angles from 0° (nadir) to 10°. Meanwhile, wave buoys have been deployed that collect in situ wave measurements in the SO and other locations around Australia. In addition, an extensive wave buoy network in the northern hemisphere (i.e., NDBC) also exists. These buoys provide temporally rich observations but are limited to discrete point data across a vast spatial ocean. This study, thus, aims to compare collocated wave measurements (i.e., significant wave height, mean wave period, peak wavelength, and peak wave direction) from SWIM against wave buoys to understand how well these observations match up. Preliminary analyses showed promising results with strong correlations and small error (bias and root mean square error, RMSE) obtained for collocated wave observations in the SO and NDBC collection. These results will provide critical background information that could support efforts in developing a database of satellite-derived wave products for the SO and the Australian region.