Estimation of Significant Wave Height Using the Features of Cygnss Delay Doppler Map.

Significant Wave Height (SWH) is a key parameter to characterize waves, which is typically used in sea state monitoring such as wave forecast to ensure ocean navigation safety. Satellite radar altimeter is probably the primary tool to obtain SWH information. However, it cannot be used for large-scale sea state monitoring unless many of theses satellites are deployed. In this article, we aim to study the potential of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-Reflectometry (GNSS-R) in SWH measurement based on spaceborne Delay-Doppler Maps (DDMs) data. First, 3 observables (i.e., Delay-Doppler Map Average (DDMA), leading edge slope (LES) of normalized integrated delay waveform (NIDW) (LES-NIDW), and trailing edge slope (TES) of NIDW (TES-NIDW) derived from the DDMs are introduced for SWH estimation. Then, an empirical SWH retrieval model is proposed based on three observables. Subsequently, ERA5 SWH is used as reference data to verify the performance of the proposed model. The experimental results show that the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and Correlation Coefficient (CC) estimated by SWH of the three observables are better than 0.54 m and 0.88 m, respectively. Among them, the estimation performance based on DDMA observable is the best, with RMSE and CC of 0.49 m and 0.89 m. This study shows the potential of spaceborne GNSS-R in SWH retrieval.