Determination of oceanic extremes using a spatial ensemble of satellite data

Abstract

In this thesis, the application of extreme-value analysis to long-duration (30-year) global altimeter and radiometer datasets is considered. In contrast to previous extreme-value analyses of satellite data, the dataset is sufficiently long to enable a Peaks over Threshold (PoT) analysis to be undertaken. When applied to altimeter data for wind speed and significant wave height, this analysis produces values consistent with buoy validation data and previous numerical model reanalysis datasets. The spatial distributions produced are also consistent with the model reanalysis data. However, the altimeter data shows a much greater fine-scale structure for wind speed, which is consistent with know..