WAVES AND WINDS FROM NEW ZEALAND WATERS FROM SPACE
New Zealand lies in a relatively data sparse region of the world's oceans. Most of the earth's surface here is water. Conventional surface-based data for these waters are mostly from ships of opportunity and not sufficiently dense or accurate for detailed research into wind and wave patterns. The information available on surface wind and wave features are derived from quite coarse atmospheric models and ocean wave models driven by the winds these atmospheric models provide. The good supply of data from first Geosat and now ERS-1 has enabled studies of wind and waves by providing an independent source of climatological data, verification data for wind and wave models, and also measurements which can be assimilated into the models to improve their performance. All three applications are briefly described, including: wave climate information derived from radar altimeter data; comparisons between wind scatterometer data and surface winds over the Tasman Sea as diagnosed from analyses for numerical weather prediction; and the separate and joint impacts of wave and wind information from the radar altimeter on wave model results at the New Zealand coast.
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Supplemental Notes:
- WMO/IOC Technical Conference on Space-Based Ocean Observations; September 1993; Bergen, Norway. Sponsored by World Meteorological Organization and Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (of UNESCO). Procs. Plenary Session 2, p 71 [12 p, 18 ref, 2 tab, 9 fig]
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Authors:
- Laing, A K
- Publication Date: 1993
Language
- English
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Wind
- Geographic Terms: New Zealand
- Old TRIS Terms: Satellite applications; Wave data
- Subject Areas: Marine Transportation;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 00717253
- Record Type: Publication
- Source Agency: British Maritime Technology
- Files: TRIS
- Created Date: Mar 4 1996 12:00AM