Abstract
Wave periods estimated from satellite altimetry data behave differently from those calculated from buoy data, especially in low-wind conditions. In this paper, the geometric mean wave period T a is calculated from buoy data, rather than the commonly used zero-crossing wave period T z . The geometric mean wave period uses the fourth moment of the wave frequency spectrum and is related to the mean-square slope of the sea surface measured using altimeters. The values of T a obtained from buoys and altimeters agree well (root mean square difference: 0.2 s) only when the contribution of high-frequency sea waves is estimated by a wavenumber spectral model to complement the buoy data, because a buoy cannot obtain data from waves having wavelengths that are shorter than the characteristic dimension of the buoy.
Highlights
As the statistical character parameters describing the sea state, the wave height and period are important in theoretical research on ocean wave generation, developments in coastal and offshore engineering, and other applications
The buoy data were obtained from from the US National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) [8], and a total of 30 buoys located in the open the US National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) [8], and a total of 30 buoys located in the open ocean ocean were chosen in order to avoid shallow water effects (Figure 1)
In previous studies on altimeter wave period retrieval, great efforts were made to establish a relationship between the buoy-derived zero-crossing wave period TzB with altimeter-measured significant wave height Hs and the backscatter coefficient σ0
Summary
As the statistical character parameters describing the sea state, the wave height and period are important in theoretical research on ocean wave generation, developments in coastal and offshore engineering, and other applications. Subsequent studies have indicated the possibility of retrieving Tz from Hs and the backscatter coefficient σ0 , measurements of altimeters, and numerous empirical models have been proposed in the last two decades (e.g., [2,3,4,5,6]).
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