Severe Weather Applications over the Oceans using ERS SAR Wavemode Data

Due to the relatively small amount of in situ data available for the open oceans, particularly during extreme events, under such conditions remote sensing techniques take an important role in the retrieval of geophysical information. Up to now the only remote sensing system capable of providing information on two dimensional sea state on a global and continuous scale and under all weather conditions is the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). In the scope of the project Wave Atlas, ESA provided a two years wave-mode dataset of ERS-2 SAR raw data, mainly collected during 1999 and 2000, which was reprocessed to single-look- complex imagettes at DLR using the BSAR processor. In this study the data were used for a statistical evaluation resulting in global ocean maps of different basic image parameters and oceanic parameters like wind speed, significant wave height, mean period and their respective regional and temporal variability during the seasons of the year using the empirical algorithms CWIND1.0 and CWAVE1.0. Global statistics are given for the time frame of 1998 to 2000 and examples of severe storms are analysed in detail. In future, the reprocessing of wavemode data is planned to be extended to the full lifetime of ERS-1 and ERS-2, which is at least 1991-2006. As wave mode data are also available from the ENVISAT mission, there is the possibility for future expansion.