New satellite observations have unveiled the immense reach and power of recent ocean storms, with record swells traveling 24,000 kilometers from the North Pacific to the Atlantic between late December 2024 and early January 2025.
Led by Fabrice Ardhuin from France’s Laboratory of Physical and Spatial Oceanography, the research team combined high-resolution data from the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission with decades of information from the ESA Climate Change Initiative (CCI) Sea State project. This collaboration integrated insights from multiple satellites, including SARAL, Jason-3, Copernicus Sentinel-3A and 3B, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, CryoSat, and CFOSAT.
The findings highlight key wave characteristics such as the wave period the time between crests which reveals a storm’s intensity. A 20-second wave period, for instance, indicates the arrival of massive waves spaced at powerful intervals.
Contrary to long-held assumptions, the analysis found that true energy concentrations lie in peak storm waves rather than in long-traveling ocean swells. This revelation challenges previous climate models and improves understanding of how wave energy propagates across oceans.
Copernicus Sentinel-6 now provides near-real-time measurements of wave height and wind speed, strengthening daily forecasts and offering critical data to protect coastlines and infrastructure as climate change drives more extreme marine events.
These advances in satellite technology and ocean monitoring mark a major step toward understanding and mitigating the impact of Earth’s most powerful waves.