Nowadays, spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) has become a powerful tool for providing significant wave height (SWH). Traditionally, validation of SAR derived SWH has been carried out against buoy measurements or model outputs, which only yield an inter-comparison, but not an "absolute" validation. In this study, the triple collocation error model has been introduced in the validation of Envisat ASAR derived SWH products. SWH retrievals from ASAR wave mode using ESA's algorithm are validated against in situ buoy data, and wave model hindcast results from WaveWatch III wave model, covering a period of six years. From the triple collocation validation analysis, the impacts of the collocation distance and water depth on the error of ASAR SWH are... |