Influence of sea state on sea surface height oscillation from doppler altimeter measurements in the north sea

This paper reports on an investigation on the influence of waves on the sea surface height error, σh, as measured by Delay Doppler satellite altimetry (DDA). CryoSat-2 altimeter sea surface height (SSH) data in the North Sea, processed in both DDA and pseudo low resolution mode (PLRM), are correlated with European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) co-located sea state data. We find a small, but consistent correlation between the 1 Hz standard deviation, σh, of the 20 Hz altimeter SSH and the ECMWF total significant wave height, SWHt. The same analysis carried out between σh and the swell component of the wave spectrum shows a smaller correlation. In contrast, the correlation between the PLRM σh and any component of the SWH spectrum has not been found to be significant. To provide an explanation of these results, the aliasing effect caused by the interaction between the sea wavelength and the altimeter resolution has been considered; a simple model has, therefore, been produced to simulate the dependence of the aliasing-derived, σA, on the sea wavelength. The alias/wavelength curve obtained helps to explain why—at least for the relatively low wavelength sea data considered—the wave direction and its wavelength have little or no influence on σh.