Storm surge observed by Chinese HY-2A satellite radar altimetry

Abstract

HY-2A is the first Chinese ocean dynamic environment monitoring satellite, which was launched in August 2011. The satellite repeats its ground track every 14 days. It plays an important role in global monitoring of sea surface winds (especially extreme winds like typhoons and hurricanes), ocean waves, currents, eddies, and extreme events like storm surges by using its four major payloads, i.e. radar altimetry, microwave scatterometer, scanning microwave radiometer and calibration microwave radiometer. The HY-2A data are obtained from China’s National Satellite Ocean Application Service (NSOAS). We use 1 s along-track data with a nominal spatial resolution of about 7 km. For example, a storm surge induced by tropical cyclone Funso in the Southwest Indian Ocean near Mozambique in January 2012 is observed by HY-2A satellite altimetry. The storm surge magnitude is estimated to be 0.49 m and the cross-shelf e-folding decay scale to be 92 km. The present study shows that the HY-2A satellite altimetry is a useful tool for monitoring storm surges and their impacts in the Indian Ocean.