Satellite altimetry reveals spatial patterns of variations in the Baltic Sea wave climate

Kudryavtseva, Nadezhda; Soomere, Tarmo

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-8-697-2017

Articles | Volume 8, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-8-697-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Special issue:

Multiple drivers for Earth system changes in the Baltic Sea...

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-8-697-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 8, issue 3

Research article

|

08 Aug 2017

Research article |

| 08 Aug 2017

Satellite altimetry reveals spatial patterns of variations in the Baltic Sea wave climate

Nadezhda Kudryavtseva and Tarmo Soomere

Data sets

The satellite altimetry data R. Scharroo, E.W. Leuliette, J. L. Lillibridge, D., Byrne, M. C. Naeije, and G. T. Mitchum http://rads.tudelft.nl/rads/rads.shtml

Ocean and Sea Ice Satellite Application Facility EUMETSAT http://osisaf.met.no/

Short summary

We discuss for the first time changes in the wave climate in the Baltic Sea over the last 2 decades derived from satellite altimetry data spanning over 26 years. We found in the study that there are variations in the wave climate of the Baltic Sea, which can be interpreted as being caused predominantly by a rotation of wind direction rather than increased wind speed, implying that associated variations in the airflow direction can be a dominant driver of regional climate changes.