Is it possible to add total SWH to the Globwave SAR dataset

The GlobWave project funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) is to improve the uptake of satellite-derived wind-wave and swell data by the scientific, operational and commercial user community. The newly released GlobWave data contain synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and altimeter wave data with collocated in situ measurements. While the derived altimeter wave data consist of total significant wave height (SWH) of ocean waves (both wind-waves and swells), the derived SAR wave data only consist of swell SWH. In this paper, data from 2006 to 2009 are used in the validation of GlobWave SAR data. The results show that (1) the difference between sar_swh and buoy_swh has a very small mean deviation (MD) and relative deviation (RD) which means the SAR retrieved total SWH data is very closed to the non-partitioned buoy data; (2) sar_swh_cal_2 and sar_swh_cal_1 have very large RD, which means the results are very sensitive to the choice of spectral partition; (3) the calibration of sar_swh from total SWH to swell SWH has many manipulations and is not recommended, on the contrary, the calibration of sar_swh to reduce STD between is strongly recommended. As a conclusion, it is possible to add total SWH of ocean waves to the Globwave SAR dataset.