Evaluations of the Significant Wave Height Products of HY-2B Satellite Radar Altimeters
Yongjun Jia, Mingsen Lin, Youguang Zhang
Abstract
In the present study, the qualities of the HY-2B along-track significant wave heights (SWH) are assessed, including precision and accuracy. A quality evaluation based on 1 Hz standard deviations is proposed to detect the precision of HY-2B SWH products. The density plots of the (SWH, std) pairs obtained by the HY-2B, Jason-2 and Jason-3 are compared. And the results indicates that the HY-2B SWH root mean square error levels are significantly lower than those observed for the other altimeters. With respect to the SWH obtained from the wave rider buoys, buoys of the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC), Jason-2 and Jason-3, the root mean square errors are 24 cm, 27 cm, 26 cm and 23 cm respectively. The comparison results confirm that the quality of the HY-2B SWH data higher.