Global wind and wave climate based on two reanalysis databases: ECMWF ERA5 and NCEP CFSR

Abstract

In the present work, the global wind and wave climate is studied on the basis of two well-known reanalysis products, namely ERA5 and CFSR-W (WW3 hereafter). Several statistical features of the datasets are assessed, such as seasonal variability, quantiles of the probability distribution, monthly, annual and inter-annual variability, and several error metrics. The time span covers a period of 31 years (1979–2009), a fact that assures that most of the long-scale features are equally present in both datasets. The analysis performed is depicted both on a global and regional scale. The results are also assessed by means of a global satellite altimeter dataset.