Comparisons of SAR estimated wave spectra with WAM model estimates during the SRL Southern Ocean experiment

The Space Radar Laboratory (SRL) flown aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor during two ten-day periods in April and October of 1994 provided a set of approximately 100000 SAR-measured directional ocean wave spectral estimates over the Southern Ocean that was dense along the shuttle´s groundtrack. Concurrent with these periods, directional wave spectral data sets calculated by the “third generation” ocean wave model WAM that is operational at the US Navy´s Fleet Numerical Oceanographic and Meteorological Center. Comparisons between model-calculated spectra and SAR-estimated spectra are discussed for a subset of SAR passes that imaged an Indian Ocean storm system that exceeded 12 m significant wave height