Wind and wave height climate from two decades of altimeter records on the Chilean Coast (15°–56.5° S)

Abstract

In order to look for climatological changes on significant wave height and wind magnitude distributions, two decades of altimeter data were analyzed in a monthly 1° × 1° grid at the Southeastern Pacific Ocean, offshore of Chile. Both wind magnitude and significant wave height shown significant growing medians, at a rate of up to 0.2 m dec−1 and 1 m s−1 dec−1, respectively. Nevertheless, the shape of both statistical distributions shows regional differences from North to South. We conclude that both significant wave height and wind magnitude distributions experienced significant changes during the last two decades and also that their behavior is not uniform along the Southeastern Pacific Ocean.