Final considerations
Three overpasses of Jason-2 (in less than 40 hours) took place during this storm in the region of interest, the western part of the North Atlantic. Despite the limitations of radar altimeter for operational marine forecasts, mainly the incapability of providing a synoptic overview, these single three overpasses of Jason-2 prove that altimeter data can be used for monitoring the propagation of a swell with high waves.
Despite the good correspondence between Jason-2 estimations and buoy data, these results show that severe sea conditions can reduce the accuracy of Jason-2’s estimations. Nevertheless, the results presented here illustrate the importance and benefits of the use of radar altimetry wave height products, particularly in ocean zones with lacking observations, where real-time satellite altimeter observations are used to support the short-range ocean forecast.