SARAL/AltiKa Wind and Wave Products: Monitoring, Validation and Assimilation

SARAL/AltiKa surface wind speed (WS) and significant wave height (SWH) measurements are monitored and validated against operational European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) atmospheric and wave model results in addition to available in-situ observations to access their suitability for various applications, especially SWH data assimilation. The quality of SWH is very high while that of WS is very good except for an underestimation of high wind speeds. The impact of assimilating SWH in the ECMWF Integrated Forecast System was assessed using several numerical experiments. The results show positive impact. Operational assimilation of SWH at ECMWF model is part of the forthcoming model change.