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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Ocean Observation
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1458892

High-resolution Mapping of Significant Wave Heights in the Northeast Pacific and Northwest Atlantic Using Improved Multi-Source Satellite Altimetry Fusion Method

Provisionally accepted
Hongbin Yang Hongbin Yang 1Bingchen Liang Bingchen Liang 1,2Huijun Gao Huijun Gao 3,4*Zhuxiao Shao Zhuxiao Shao 1
  • 1 College of Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
  • 2 Shandong Province Key Laboratory of Marine Environment and Geological Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
  • 3 Frontiers Science Center for Deep Ocean Multispheres and Earth System, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
  • 4 Physical Oceanography Laboratory, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Significant wave height (SWH) is an important parameter to reflect wave state, which is of great significance in ocean engineering. However, the current wave observation methods have limitations in capturing wave field data with high spatial resolution. In this study, to generate the SWHs field over the Northeast Pacific and Northwest Atlantic, multi-source satellite altimeter data (CRYOSAT-2, SARAL, JASON-3, SENTINEL-3A, SENTINEL-3B, HY-2B and CFOSAT) are fused with a spatial resolution of 0.125° x 0.125° and a temporal resolution of 1 day. We employ the Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) method and the IDW-based spatiotemporal (IDW-ST) method for data fusion. The fusion results exhibit a consistent spatial distribution characteristic, but the results of the IDW method display the visible trajectory. Moreover, the IDW-ST method, which incorporates time factors, shows great agreement between the fused SWH and buoy data. However, when the water depth change near the grid point has a great influence on the fusion, the complexity of bathymetric topography makes the traditional two-dimensional spatial fusion methods inadequate. Therefore, an improved method is proposed based on the IDW-ST fusion method, which introduces the water depth factor and significantly enhances fusion accuracy in regions where bathymetric variations greatly affect fusion results. The proposed method can be used to generate reliable SWH fields, especially in complex bathymetric topography conditions, and provide significant support for marine infrastructure design, ocean energy utilization and marine disaster protection.

    Keywords: Multi-source satellite altimeters, fusion method, water depth factor, significant wave height, Northeast Pacific and Northwest Atlantic

    Received: 03 Jul 2024; Accepted: 07 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Yang, Liang, Gao and Shao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Huijun Gao, Frontiers Science Center for Deep Ocean Multispheres and Earth System, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.