Comparison of TOPEX/POSEIDON altimeter derived wave period with ocean buoy data in the East China Sea and South China Sea

Altimeter wave period data obtained from continental shelf seas are analyzed in this paper. Empirical models are introduced for zero up-crossing and peak wave period calculation with TOPEX/POSEIDON data. Their performances are assessed using independent validation dataset in four sites in the open ocean of China. To provide more accurate wave period estimation, new coefficients are applied to reliable in situ data. Comparison of our estimated the wave periods with new linear calibrations based on independent data of Seapac 2100 deployed in the East China Sea and South China Sea showed that the accuracy was improved over estimates determined from earlier empirical models. Regional analysis indicated that the wave period model works better under wind sea condition.     

Analysis on monthly-averaged distribution of sea surface wind and wave over the seas southeast of Asia using ERS-2 scatterometer data

The wind system over the seas southeast of Asia (SSEA) plays an important role in China's climate variation. In this paper, ERS scatterometer winds covering the period from January 2000 to December 2000 and the area of 2-41 °N, 105- 130°E were analyzed with a distance-weighting interpolation method and the monthly mean distribution of the sea surface wind speed were given. The seasonal characteristics of winds in the SSEA were analyzed. Based on WAVEWATCH Ⅲ model, distribution of significant wave height was calculated.     

Multi-scale wavelet analysis of TOPEX/Poseidon altimeter significant wave height in eastern China seas

The multi-scale characteristics of wave significant height (Hss) in eastern China seas were revealed by multi-scale wavelet analysis. In order to understand the relation between wave and wind, the TOPEX/Poseidon measurements of Hs and wind speed were analyzed. The result showed that Hs and wind speed change in multi-scale at one-, two-month, half-, one- and two-year cycles. But in a larger time scale, the variations in Hs and wind speed are different. Hs has a five-year cycle similar to the cycle of ENSO variation, while the wind speed has no such cycle. In the time domain, the correlation between Hs and ENSO is unclear.     

A new model to estimate significant wave heights with ERS-1/2 scatterometer data

A new model is proposed to estimate the significant wave heights with ERS-1/2 scatterometer data. The results show that the relationship between wave parameters and radar backscattering cross section is similar to that between wind and the radar backscattering cross section. Therefore, the relationship between significant wave height and the radar backscattering cross section is established with a neural network algorithm, which is, if the average wave period is ≤7s, the root mean square of significant wave...     

Distribution of the nonlinear random ocean wave period

Because of the intrinsic difficulty in determining distributions for wave periods, previous studies on wave period distribution models have not taken nonlinearity into account and have not performed well in terms of describing and statistically analyzing the probability density distribution of ocean waves. In this study, a statistical model of random waves is developed using Stokes wave theory of water wave dynamics. In addition, a new nonlinear probability distribution function for the wave period is presented with the parameters of spectral density width and nonlinear wave steepness, which is more reasonable as a physical mechanism. The magnitude of wave steepness determines the intensity of the nonlinear effect, while the spectral width only changes the energy distribution. The wave steepness is found to be an important parameter in terms of not only dynamics but also statistics. The value of wave steepness reflects the degree that the wave period distribution skews from the Cauchy distribution, and it also describes the variation in the distribution function, which resembles that of the wave surface elevation distribution and wave height distribution. We found that the distribution curves skew leftward and upward as the wave steepness increases. The wave period observations for the SZFII-1 buoy, made off the coast of Weihai (37°27.6′ N, 122°15.1′ E), China, are used to verify the new distribution. The coefficient of the correlation between the new distribution and the buoy data at different spectral widths (ν=0.3−0.5) is within the range of 0.968 6 to 0.991 7. In addition, the Longuet-Higgins (1975) and Sun (1988) distributions and the new distribution presented in this work are compared. The validations and comparisons indicate that the new nonlinear probability density distribution fits the buoy measurements better than the Longuet-Higgins and Sun distributions do. We believe that adoption of the new wave period distribution would improve traditional statistical wave theory.     

Wave extraction with portable high-frequency surface wave radar OSMAR-S

High frequency surface wave radar (HFSWR) has now gained more and more attention in real-time monitoring of sea surface states such as current, waves and wind. Normally a small-aperture antenna array is preferred to a large-aperture one due to the easiness and low cost to set up. However, the large beam-width and the corresponding incorrect division of the first- and second-order Doppler spectral regions often lead to big errors in wave height and period estimations. Therefore, for the HFSWR with a compact cross-loop/monopole antenna (CMA), a new algorithm involving improved beam-forming (BF) and spectral division techniques is proposed. On one hand, the cross-spectrum of the output sequence by the conventional beam-forming (CBF) with all the three elements and the output with only the two loops is used in place of the CMA output self-spectrum to achieve a decreased beam-width; on the other hand, the better null seeking process is included to improve the division accuracy of the first- and second-order regions. The algorithm is used to reprocess the data collected by the portable HFSWR OSMAR-S during the Sailing Competition of the 16th Asian Games held in Shanwei in November 2010, and the improvements of both the correlation coefficients and root-mean-square (RMS) errors between the wave height and period estimations and in situ buoy measurements are obvious. The algorithm has greatly enhanced the capabilities of OSMAR-S in wave measurements.     

Joint occurrence period of wind speed and wave height based on both service term and risk probability

Return periods calculated for different environmental conditions are key parameters for ocean platform design.Many codes for offshore structure design give no consideration about the correlativity among multi-loads and over-estimate design values.This frequently leads to not only higher investment but also distortion of structural reliability analysis.The definition of design return period in existing codes and industry criteria in China are summarized.Then joint return periods of different ocean environmental parameters are determined from the view of service term and danger risk.Based on a bivariate equivalent maximum entropy distribution,joint design parameters are estimated for the concomitant wave height and wind speed at a site in the Bohai Sea.The calculated results show that even if the return period of each environmental factor,such as wave height or wind speed,is small,their combinations can lead to larger joint return periods.Proper design criteria for joint return period associated with concomitant environmental conditions will reduce structural size and lead to lower investment of ocean platforms for the exploitation of marginal oil field.     

Calculation of significant wave height using the linear mean square estimation method

Significant wave height is an important criterion in designing coastal and offshore structures. Based on the orthogonality principle, the linear mean square estimation method is applied to calculate significant wave height in this paper. Twenty-eight-year time series of wave data collected from three ocean buoys near San Francisco along the California coast are analyzed. It is proved theoretically that the computation error will be reduced by using as many measured data as possible for the calculation of significant wave height. Measured significant wave height at one buoy location is compared with the calculated value based on the data from two other adjacent buoys. The results indicate that the linear mean square estimation method can be well applied to the calculation and prediction of significant wave height in coastal regions.     

Comparison and analysis of Envisat ASAR ocean wave spectra with buoy data in the northern Pacific Ocean

The validation and assessment of Envisat advanced synthetic aperture radar (ASAR) ocean wave spectra products are important to their application in ocean wave numerical predictions. Six-year ASAR wave spectra data are compared with one-dimensional (1D) wave spectra of 55 co-located moored buoy observations in the northern Pacific Ocean. The ASAR wave spectra data are firstly quality control filtered and spatio-temporal matched with buoy data. The comparisons are then performed in terms of 1D wave spectra, significant wave height (SWH) and mean wave period (MWP) in different spatio-temporal offsets respectively. SWH comparison results show the evident dependence of SWH biases on wind speed and the ASAR SWH saturation effect. The ASAR wave spectra tend to underestimate SWH at high wind speeds and overestimate SWH at low wind speeds. MWP comparison results show that MWP has a systematic bias and therefore it should be bias-modified before used. The comparisons of 1D wave spectra show that both wave spectra agree better at low frequencies than at high frequencies, which indicates the ASAR data cannot resolve the high frequency waves.     

Retrieval of Significant Wave Height Under Typhoon Conditions from Gaofen-3 SAR Imagery

The objective of this paper is to propose an empirical method to inverse significant wave height(SWH)under typhoon conditions from collected dual-polarization Gaofen(GF)-3 synthetic aperture radar(SAR)imagery.The typhoon scenes were cap-tured from narrow scan(NSC)and wide scan(WSC)images,and collocated with European Center for Medium-Range Weather Fore-casts reanalysis data of(ECMWF).To improve the quality of GF-3 SAR images,the recalibration over rainforest and de-scalloping were carried out.To establish the empirical relationship between SAR-derived parameters and collocated SWH,the sensitivity analysis of typical parameters about the normalized radar cross section(Nrcs)and imagery variance(Cvar)were performed to both VV and VH polarized images.Four scenes from GF-3 SAR imagery under typhoon conditions were used for training the model by the multivari-ate least square regression,and one scene was used for preliminary validation.It was found that the joint retrieval model based on VV and VH polarized SAR imagery performed better than any single polarized model.These results,verified by using ECMWF data,revealed the soundness of this approach,with a correlation of 0.95,bias of 0 m,RMSE of 0.44 and SI of 0.01 when VV polarization and VH polarization data were both used.     

Variability of surface velocity in the Kuroshio Current and adjacent waters derived from Argos drifter buoys and satellite altimeter data

By combining Argos drifter buoys and TOPEX/POSEIDON altimeter data, the time series of sea-surface velocity fields in the Kuroshio Current (KC) and adjacent regions are established. And the variability of the KC from the Luzon Strait to the Tokara Strait is studied based on the velocity fields. The results show that the dominant variability period varies in different segments of the KC: The primary period near the Luzon Strait and to the east of Taiwan Island is the intra-seasonal time scale; the KC on the continental shelf of the ECS is the steadiest segment without obvious periodicity, while the Tokara Strait shows the period of seasonal variability. The diverse periods are caused by the Rossby waves propagating from the interior ocean, with adjustments in topography of island chain and local wind stress. Supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, Nos. 2007CB411804, 2005CB422303), the NSFC (No. 40706006), the Key Project of International Science and Technology Cooperation Program of China (No. 2006DFB21250) and the “111 Project” (B07036), the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NECT-07-0781)