Retrieval of ocean surface wave parameters from ICESat-2 altimetry: Validation and limitations

Cao, Lang, Liu, Qingxiang, Voermans, Joey, Alberello, Alberto and Babanin, Alexander (2025) Retrieval of ocean surface wave parameters from ICESat-2 altimetry: Validation and limitations. Ocean Dynamics, 75 (6). ISSN 1616-7341

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Abstract

The Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite 2 (ICESat-2) provides high-resolution height measurements of the Earth's ice, land and ocean surfaces, making it possible to observe individual waves in the global ocean. Here, we use approximately 3-yr ICESat-2 laser altimetry data (October 2018 to August 2021), from which ocean surface wave parameters, including significant wave height, peak wave length and direction, are retrieved and thoroughly validated against in situ observations in both open ocean and coastal waters. It is found that the ICESat-2 wave height agrees very well with buoy measurements, featuring a RMSE of 0.16 (0.26) m in deep (coastal) waters. The peak wave length and direction from ICESat-2, though less favorable, remain practically useful, showing a correlation coefficient of about 0.7 with buoy data. The challenge in estimating peak wave length and direction from ICESat-2 along-track surface profiles under mixed sea states are discussed through numerical simulations and buoy observations.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Data availability statement: The ICESat-2 data are available through the National Snow Ice Data Center (NSIDC). The ATL03 geolocated photon data are found online (https://nsidc.org/data/atl03/versions/6). The NDBC buoy data used in this research are from the USACE QCC Measurement Archive, which can be downloaded from the USACE Coastal and Hydraulic Laboratory (CHL) Data server (https://chldata.erdc.dren.mil/). The CDIP buoy data are accessible on the THREDDS data server (https://thredds.cdip.ucsd.edu/thredds/catalog/cdip/archive/catalog.html). The WW3-ST6 global wave hindcast is archived at the Mediaflux platform, a data storage and management service kindly supported by the Research Computing Services of the University of Melbourne. Data access will be provided from Q. Liu (liuqingxiang@ouc.edu.cn) and A. Babanin (a.babanin@unimelb.edu.au). Funding information: Q.L. acknowledges the support from the Shandong Provincial Natural Science Fund for Excellent Young Scientists Fund Program (Overseas) (2023HWYQ-056), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42106012), the Taishan Scholars Program (tsqnz20221111) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (202441007). A.A. acknowledges funding from EPSRC, United Kingdom (EP/Y02012X/1).
Uncontrolled Keywords:	icesat-2,mixed sea states,ocean surface waves,peak wave direction,peak wave length,significant wave height,oceanography ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1900/1910
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Engineering, Mathematics and Physics
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Fluids & Structures
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	25 Jun 2025 10:30
Last Modified:	26 Jun 2025 10:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/99713
DOI:	10.1007/s10236-025-01700-8

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