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Validation of Chinese HY-2 satellite radar altimeter significant wave height

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Abstract

Chinese Haiyang-2(HY-2) satellite is the first Chinese marine dynamic environment satellite. The dual-frequency (Ku and C band) radar altimeter onboard HY-2 has been working effective to provide operational significant wave height (SWH) for more than three years (October 1, 2011 to present).We validated along-track Ku-band SWH data of HY-2 satellite against National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) in-situ measurements over a time period of three years from October 1, 2011 to September 30, 2014, the root mean square error (RMSE) and mean bias of HY-2 SWH is 0.38 m and (–0.13±0.35) m, respectively. We also did cross validation against Jason-2 altimeter SWH data,the RMSE and the mean bias is 0.36m and (–0.22±0.28) m, respectively. In order to compare the statistical results between HY-2 and Jason-2 satellite SWH data, we validated the Jason-2 satellite radar altimeter along-track Ku-band SWH data against NDBC measurements using the same method. The results demonstrate the validation method in this study is scientific and the RMSE and mean bias of Jason-2 SWH data is 0.26 m and (0.00±0.26) m, respectively. We also validated both HY-2 and Jason-2 SWH data every month, the mean bias of Jason-2 SWH data almost equaled to zero all the time, while the mean bias of HY-2 SWH data was no less than –0.31m before April 2013 and dropped to zero after that time. These results indicate that the statistical results for HY-2 altimeter SWH are reliable and HY-2 altimeter along-track SWH data were steady and of high quality in the last three years. The results also indicate that HY-2 SWH data have greatly been improved and have the same accuracy with Jason-2 SWH data after April, 2013. SWH data provided by HY-2 satellite radar altimeter are useful and acceptable for ocean operational applications.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Information Science and Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266100, China

    Xiaomin Ye & Ying Xu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Satellite Ocean Environment Dynamics, Second Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration, Hangzhou, 310012, China

    Xiaomin Ye

  3. National Satellite Ocean Application Service, State Oceanic Administration, Beijing, 100081, China

    Xiaomin Ye, Mingsen Lin & Ying Xu

  4. Key Laboratory of Space Ocean Remote Sensing and Application, State Oceanic Administration, Beijing, 100081, China

    Xiaomin Ye, Mingsen Lin & Ying Xu

Authors
  1. Xiaomin Ye
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  2. Mingsen Lin
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  3. Ying Xu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mingsen Lin.

Additional information

Foundation item: The Public Science and Technology Research Funds Projects of Ocean under contract Nos 201105032, 201305032 and 201005030; the National High Technology Research and Development Program (863 Program) of China under contract No. 2013AA09A505; Global Change and Air-Sea Interaction Project of China under contract No. GASI-03-03-01-01; the International Science & Technology Cooperation Program of China under contract No. 2011DFA22260; the Open funds of State Key Laboratory of Satellite Ocean Environment Dynamics under contract No. SOED1411.

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Ye, X., Lin, M. & Xu, Y. Validation of Chinese HY-2 satellite radar altimeter significant wave height. Acta Oceanol. Sin. 34, 60–67 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-015-0667-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-015-0667-y

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