Stopa J. E., Ardhuin Fabrice, Husson R., Jiang H. Y., Chapron B., Collard F. (2016). Swell dissipation from 10 years of Envisat advanced synthetic aperture radar in wave mode. Geophysical Research Letters, 43 (7), p. 3423-3430. ISSN 0094-8276.
Titre du document
Swell dissipation from 10 years of Envisat advanced synthetic aperture radar in wave mode
Stopa J. E., Ardhuin Fabrice, Husson R., Jiang H. Y., Chapron B., Collard F.
Source
Geophysical Research Letters, 2016,
43 (7), p. 3423-3430 ISSN 0094-8276
Swells are found in all oceans and strongly influence the wave climate and air-sea processes. The poorly known swell dissipation is the largest source of error in wave forecasts and hindcasts. We use synthetic aperture radar data to identify swell sources and trajectories, allowing a statistically significant estimation of swell dissipation. We mined the entire Envisat mission 2003-2012 to find suitable storms with swells (13 < T< 18 s) that are observed several times along their propagation. This database of swell events provides a comprehensive view of swell extending previous efforts. The analysis reveals that swell dissipation weakly correlates with the wave steepness, wind speed, orbital wave velocity, and the relative direction of wind and waves. Although several negative dissipation rates are found, there are uncertainties in the synthetic aperture radar-derived swell heights and dissipation rates. An acceptable range of the swell dissipation rate is -0.1 to 6 x 10(-7)m(-1) with a median of 1 x 10(-7)m(-1).
