The validation of HY-2 altimeter measurements of a significant wave height based on buoy data

HY-2 has been launched by China on August 16, 2011 which assembles multi-microwave remote sensing payloads in a body and has the ability of monitoring ocean dynamic environments. The HY-2 satellite data need to be calibrated and validated before being put into use. Based on the in-situ buoys from the National Data Buoy Center (NDBC), Ku-band significant wave heights (SWH, hs) of HY-2 altimeter are validated. Eleven months of HY-2 altimeter Level 2 products data are chose from October 1, 2011 to August 29, 2012. Using NDBC 60 buoys yield 902 collocations for HY-2 by adopting collocation criteria of 30 min for temporal window and 50 km for a spatial window. An overall RMS difference of the SWH between HY-2 and buoy data is 0.297 m. A correlation coefficient between these is 0.964. An ordinary least squares (OLS) regression is performed with the buoy data as an independent variable and the altimeter data as a dependent variable. The regression equation of hs is hs(HY-2)=0.891×hs(NDBC)+0.022. In addition, 2016 collocations are matched with temporal window of 30min at the crossing points of HY-2 and Jason-2 orbits. RMS difference of Ku-band SWH between the two data sets is 0.452 m.