A Global Sea State Dataset from Spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar Wave Mode Data

This dataset consists of integral ocean wave parameters of significant wave height (SWH) and mean wave period (MWP) data derived from the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) on board the ENVISAT satellite over its full life cycle (2002-2012) covering the global ocean. Both parameters are calibrated and validated against buoy data. A cross-validation between the ASAR SWH and radar altimeter (RA) data is also performed to ensure that the SAR-derived wave height data are of the same quality as the RA data. These data are stored in the standard NetCDF format, which are produced for each ASAR wave mode Level1B data provided by the European Space Agency. This is for the first time that a full sea state product is derived from spaceborne SAR data over the global ocean for a decadal temporal scale.