CoAuthors

Alice Dalphinet (Département Marine et Océanographie, Météo-France, France)

The assimilation of satellite wave observations plays a key role in the operational wave forecasting system of Meteo-France. Since July 3 the European space agency has released the level 2 wave products of sentinel-1A for the global coverage. The goal of this paper is to check the quality of the C band SAR wave spectra provided by Sentinel-1A. The assimiation tests in the wave model MFWAM are also performed to examine the impact on the analysis and forecast periods. This work is necessary in order to prepare the SAR wave spectra for operational use.
In this work we investigated separately the assimilation of SAR wave spectra from the two different look angles off nadir. The preliminary results show that the SAR swell wave height from the second look angle is underestimated regarding to the wave model MFWAM. The sensitivity of the assimilation with the wavelength cut-off is also examined. The results have been validated with altimeters wave data.
Further, combined assimilation of SAR wave spectra and altimeters wave data have been also performed. We expect using Jason-3 wave data in the combined assimilation. The results are discussed in the analysis and forecast periods. The impact of the combined assimilation in storm events generating high waves are analysed in this paper.