TY - JOUR T1 - Assessment of wind-forcing impact on a global wind-wave model using the TOPEX altimeter A1 - Feng,H A1 - Vandemark,D A1 - Quilfen,Yves A1 - Chapron,Bertrand A1 - Beckley,B AD - Hampton Univ, Ctr Atmospher Sci, Hampton, VA 23668 USA. AD - NASA, Goddard Space Flight Ctr, Wallops Isl, VA 23337 USA. AD - IFREMER, Ctr Brest, Plouzane, France. AD - Raytheon/ITSS, VA, USA UR - https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00000/1861/ DO - 10.1016/j.oceaneng.2005.10.015 KW - Sea state bias KW - Wind forcing KW - Scatterometer KW - Altimeter KW - Wave modeling N2 - The study presents assessment of an operational wave model (Wavewatch III), focusing upon the model sensitivity to wind-forcing products. Four wind fields are used to drive the model, including the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis and three other products that assimilate various satellite wind measurements having high spatial resolution, including the QuikSCAT scatterometer. Three wave field statistics: significant wave height, mean zero-crossing wave period, and mean square slope are compared with collocated TOPEX altimeter derivatives to gauge the relative skill of differing wind-forced model runs, as well as to demonstrate an extended use of the altimeter beyond simply supplying wave height for wave model validation and assimilation. Results suggest that model output is critically sensitive to choice of the wind field product. Higher spatial resolution in the wind fields does lead to improved agreement for the higher-order wave statistics. (C) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Y1 - 2006/08 PB - Elsevier JF - Ocean Engineering SN - 0029-8018 VL - 33 IS - 11-12 SP - 1431 EP - 1461 ID - 1861 ER -