Impacts of collocation window on the accuracy of altimeter/buoy wind-speed comparison - a simulation study

Choosing space and time windows is often a puzzling task in the simultaneous comparison of satellite and in situ observations. Numerical simulations were carried out to examine the impacts of instrument noises, geophysical variabilities and the number of data pairs on the determination of an optimal size of space and time windows in the calibration/validation of altimeter-derived wind speeds against buoy measurements. Useful results not only provide technical guidelines for future altimeter/buoy wind-speed comparisons, but also help to explain some past confusions.