Measuring ocean waves from Space: 1978 to 1988

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Global estimates of directional ocean wave spectra from space can help to spur improvements in the accuracy of existing ocean wave forecasts. The results of three ocean wave experiments conducted since 1978 indicate that a low altitude (∼300km) free-flying SAR could accurately monitor the performance of global wave models, and thus could help to assess the impact of both scatterometer-aided wind fields and improved wave model physics. The first opportunity to demonstrate such a potential should occur around the mid-1990s, when the European ERS scatterometer and the US Shuttle Space Radar Laboratory should be operating simultaneously.