Wave height from satellite altimetry and its comparison with ECMWF product

Monitoring of wave height is important primarily to reduce storm risks at sea and along the coast. Wave heights in recent years have increased 50% for the last 40 years, thus requiring intensive monitoring. Satellite altimetry offers a powerful tool for regular and extensive monitoring of the wave height. We extracted significant wave height (SWH) using several altimeter missions from 1987-1995 over the Northwest Pacific and compared with ECMWF reanalysis (ERA) products. For large wave heights > 2.5 m, the ERA wave heights are smaller than the altimetric ones, while for small wave heights the ERA wave heights are larger. Comparison in SWH between altimetric derivations and ERA model products shows the discrepancy of 0.46-0.21$\times$SWH(m).