Introduction
This case study covers a storm that occurred over the North Atlantic in mid-April 2012. Its progress was tracked by the Ocean Surface Topographic Mission (OSTM) on the Jason-2 satellite.
Between 14 and 17 April 2012, the North Atlantic area between Newfoundland and the British Isles was affected by strong winds associated with a deepening depression moving from the central part of the North Atlantic towards the British Isles. As a consequence, a "swell" (long-period waves) was generated south of Iceland, and it propagated towards the Bay of Biscay and the west Iberian coast in the subsequent days.
This case study is organized as follows: The Jason-2 radar provides a description of OSTM/Jason-2 and focus on their significant wave height (SWH) products. Following this, a description of the synoptic conditions is presented, as well as the storm's life cycle. Lastly, SWH radar observations of the waves are shown, including a comparison between satellite, wave model and buoy data and the impacts on the coastal regions of northern Spain (Fig. 1). This case study finishes with the highlights of this work.
Fig.1. Storm waves at La Coruņa (Galicia), northwest of Spain on 18 April 2012