A new insight from space into swell propagation and crossing in the global oceans

Abstract A half‐century ago, it was recorded that ocean swells can propagate up to halfway around the globe. However, from a global perspective, how ocean swells propagate in the global oceans has yet to be depicted. To date, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is the only available remote sensing instru...

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Main Author: Xiao‐Ming Li
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2016-05-01
Series:Geophysical Research Letters
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL068702
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author Xiao‐Ming Li
author_facet Xiao‐Ming Li
author_sort Xiao‐Ming Li
collection DOAJ
description Abstract A half‐century ago, it was recorded that ocean swells can propagate up to halfway around the globe. However, from a global perspective, how ocean swells propagate in the global oceans has yet to be depicted. To date, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is the only available remote sensing instrument to measure the two‐dimensional information of ocean surface waves. Here a 10 year (2002–2012) global wave data set of the spaceborne advanced SAR on board the European Space Agency's satellite Envisat and the global wind data set of the WindSat were used to (1) depict the propagation routes of ocean swells in the global oceans, (2) identify four distinguished crossing swell “pools,” and (3) interpret how these pools are formed. Together, these findings yield a new insight into ocean swells propagation and the consequent occurrence of crossing swells on a global ocean scale from space, which will further deepen our understanding of nature of ocean.
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spelling doaj-art-2629d7283f7e40e6bfff5da5a7195d4b2025-08-20T01:51:46ZengWileyGeophysical Research Letters0094-82761944-80072016-05-0143105202520910.1002/2016GL068702A new insight from space into swell propagation and crossing in the global oceansXiao‐Ming Li0Key Laboratory of Digital Earth Science, Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing ChinaAbstract A half‐century ago, it was recorded that ocean swells can propagate up to halfway around the globe. However, from a global perspective, how ocean swells propagate in the global oceans has yet to be depicted. To date, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is the only available remote sensing instrument to measure the two‐dimensional information of ocean surface waves. Here a 10 year (2002–2012) global wave data set of the spaceborne advanced SAR on board the European Space Agency's satellite Envisat and the global wind data set of the WindSat were used to (1) depict the propagation routes of ocean swells in the global oceans, (2) identify four distinguished crossing swell “pools,” and (3) interpret how these pools are formed. Together, these findings yield a new insight into ocean swells propagation and the consequent occurrence of crossing swells on a global ocean scale from space, which will further deepen our understanding of nature of ocean.https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL068702synthetic aperture radarocean swellpropagationcrossing
spellingShingle Xiao‐Ming Li
A new insight from space into swell propagation and crossing in the global oceans
Geophysical Research Letters
synthetic aperture radar
ocean swell
propagation
crossing
title A new insight from space into swell propagation and crossing in the global oceans
title_full A new insight from space into swell propagation and crossing in the global oceans
title_fullStr A new insight from space into swell propagation and crossing in the global oceans
title_full_unstemmed A new insight from space into swell propagation and crossing in the global oceans
title_short A new insight from space into swell propagation and crossing in the global oceans
title_sort new insight from space into swell propagation and crossing in the global oceans
topic synthetic aperture radar
ocean swell
propagation
crossing
url https://doi.org/10.1002/2016GL068702
work_keys_str_mv AT xiaomingli anewinsightfromspaceintoswellpropagationandcrossingintheglobaloceans
AT xiaomingli newinsightfromspaceintoswellpropagationandcrossingintheglobaloceans