Oceans from Space
A textbook for Offshore Engineers and Naval Architects

Contents

 

1 Observing the sea from space

1.1 Introduction
1.2 Early developments
1.3 What can be measured?
1.4 Orbits and sampling
1.5 Ocean colour
1.6 Sea surface temperature
1.7 Surface elevation
1.8 Surface roughness
1.9 Ice
1.10 Present and future satellite systems

2 Altimeter measurements of surface waves and wind speed

2.1 Introduction
2.2 Waves
2.3 Wind speed
2.4 Spatial coverage of altimeter data
2.5 Estimating climate statistics of wave height and wind speed

3 Synthetic Aperture Radar

3.1 Introduction
3.2 Principle of operation
3.3 Scattering Cross-section
3.4 Imaging the Sea Surface
3.5 The ESA SAR wave mode product
3.6 Conclusions

4 Sea states and wave characteristics

4.1 Stationary conditions
4.2 Time and space descriptions
4.3 Sea state and wave elevation
4.4 Waves and wave characteristics
4.5 Statistical wave parameters based on individual waves
4.6 Time and space variation of wave characteristics

5 Wave spectra and statistical wave models

5.1 Linear wave theory in time domain
5.2 Wave frequency and wave number spectrum
5.3 Wave characteristic distributions
5.4 Directional spectrum
5.5 Time and space variability, a second view

6 Statistical model choice and estimation

6.1 Spectrum estimation
6.2 Choice of statistical model

7 Extreme events

7.1 Extreme values and return period
7.2 The peaks over threshold (POT) method
7.3 Prediction of extreme values

8 Applications

8.1 Introduction
8.2 Prediction of wave properties
8.3 Prediction of loads on fixed structures in waves
8.4 Prediction of the behaviour of ships and floating structures in waves
8.5 Determination of full-scale RAOs at sea
8.6 Examples of practical applications

A Principal component and geometric mean slope

B First passage problems and wave period distribution

C Summary of polar-orbiting oceanic satellites and their sensors

D Tables

E Colour Figures