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Remote Sensing of Environment 198 (2017) 244253

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Remote Sensing of Environment

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Hurricane Isaac storm surges off Florida observed by Jason-1 and Jason-2
satellite altimeters
Guoqi Han a,, Zhimin Ma a, Nancy Chen a, Nan Chen b, Jingsong Yang b, Dake Chen b
a
Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Centre, St. John's, NL, Canada
b
State Key Laboratory of Satellite Ocean Environment Dynamics, Second Institute of Oceanography, Hangzhou, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Storm surges can cause damage to properties and loss of life in coastal communities. Thus it is important to en-
Received 25 October 2016 hance our capabilities of observing, understanding and forecasting storm surges for mitigating damage and loss.
Received in revised form 16 May 2017 Previous studies have shown that cross-shelf altimetric sea surface height proles can be used to determine
Accepted 2 June 2017
storm surge features. In this study we combine satellite altimetry with tide-gauge data to study storm surge fea-
Available online xxxx
tures off Florida in the Gulf of Mexico during Hurricane Isaac 2012. Satellite observations show a storm surge of
about 0.8 m near Cedar Key and Apalachicola decreasing westward and southward in the early morning of August
28, 2012 (UTC), consistent with tide-gauge measurements. Our analysis of satellite data reveals that the storm
surge propagates northward from Naples to Cedar Key with a phase speed of 1416 m/s and a cross-shelf
decay scale of 190220 km, in approximate agreement with the estimates from tide-gauge data. In contrast, an
analysis of tide-gauge data reveals that the storm surge propagates westward from Apalachicola to Pensacola
with a phase speed of 67 m/s and a cross-shelf decay scale of about 85 km. It is further shown that the post-
storm sea level variations at these stations are associated with rst-mode continental shelf waves. The present
study shows that along-shelf altimetric sea surface height proles can be useful to observe and understand
storm surge features as cross-shelf ones demonstrated previously, of importance to improvement of storm
surge forecasting. It suggests that a constellation of altimeter missions especially with wide-swath altimetry
could be suited to monitor storm surges.
Crown Copyright 2017 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Morey, 2011; Hagen et al., 2011; Morey et al., 2006; Weisberg and
Zheng, 2008). Tide gauge data are most reliable and have been used to
There has been frequent and severe coastal ooding that cause cata- understand storm surge features. However, tide gauges are quite sparse
strophic loss of life and damage to properties in the world (UNESCO, and not installed in some coastal communities. During extreme storm
2010). The ooding is usually caused by extreme sea level as a combina- surges, typically reliable tide gauges may not work properly or fail
tion of high storm surge, large astronomical tides and big wave run-up completely. For example, during Hurricane Katrina, many tide gauges
associated with hurricanes and typhoons. The storm surge is the main failed along the New Orleans and Mississippi coasts (Knabb et al.,
factor that causes extremely high sea level and catastrophic ooding. 2005). Therefore, timely and accurate observations from other sources
Traditionally, storm surge has been observed by coastal tide gauges, would be useful to complement tide-gauge data for monitoring storm
high-water marks and pressure gauges. Numerical models such as the surges and for improving model prediction. Satellite altimetry provides
Sea Lake and Overland Surges from Hurricanes (SLOSH) (Jelesnianski all-weather sea level measurements globally. While its data quality de-
et al., 1992) have been used to provide operational real-time forecasts teriorates few tens of kilometers from coast, it provides useful informa-
of the timing and magnitude of storm surge, providing the scientic tion over the continental shelf and in the deep ocean where tide gauge
basis for issuing ood warnings. Another good operational model sys- data are not typically available. In recent years, a variety of experimental
tem is based on the Advanced Circulation and Storm Surge model coastal altimetry products such as the Innovative Processing System
(ADCIRC) (http://coastalemergency.org/), which provides real-time Prototype for Coastal and Hydrology Applications (PISTACH, Mercier
forecasts for the northern Gulf of Mexico and eastern US coast. There et al., 2010), the Prototype for Expertise on AltiKa for Coastal, Hydrology
are many other models for hindcasts and forecasts along the northern and Ice (PEACHI, http://www.aviso.altimetry.fr/en/data/products/sea-
Gulf of Mexico coasts (e.g. Bacopoulos et al., 2012; Dukhovskoy and surface-height-products/global/experimental-saral-products-peachi.
html), the SAR Altimetry Coastal and Open Ocean Performance (SCOOP,
Corresponding author. http://www.satoc.eu/projects/SCOOP/), and X-TRACK (Birol et al.,
E-mail address: Guoqi.Han@dfo-mpo.gc.ca (G. Han). 2016) have been developed, which may reach a few km from shore.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2017.06.005
0034-4257/Crown Copyright 2017 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
G. Han et al. / Remote Sensing of Environment 198 (2017) 244253 245

Liu et al. (2012) used the X-TRACK altimetry product to derive surface passed over the eastern Gulf of Mexico during Hurricane Isaac's passage
currents on the West Florida Shelf, showing the potential usefulness of (Fig. 1), thus providing an opportunity to study the storm surge caused
the X-TRACK data for coastal currents. Liu et al. (2016) also used a by Hurricane Isaac. Our main objective is to understand temporal and
gridded altimetry product (not a coastal altimetry product) to study spatial variability and generation mechanism of the Hurricane Isaac
sea surface circulation in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, revealing im- storm surge in this region. In previous studies (e.g. Chen et al., 2014)
portant loop current variability and coastal current features. that use satellite altimetry to derive storm surge features, satellite
In the past decade or so several studies have shown the potential of ground tracks are approximately perpendicular to coast, while in the
satellite altimetry for observing and studying storm surge features. present study satellite ground tracks are approximately along coast.
Scharroo et al. (2005) was the rst in the literature to report a storm We will explain how the track orientation with respect to coast may af-
surge observed by an altimeter. They showed a cross-shelf storm fect the derivation of storm surge features.
surge prole in the Gulf of Mexico during Hurricane Katrina. Han et al. Hurricane Isaac spent most its life as a tropical storm and became a
(2012) analyzed altimetric observations of Hurricane Igor caused hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico before its making landfall in southeast
storm surge off Newfoundland. They showed that altimetric observa- Louisiana at about 00:00 UTC August 29, 2012 (Berg, 2013). It produced
tions were in good agreement with tide-gauge data and found that heavy rainfall, storm surge and ooding as it roared from Haiti, Cuba to
the storm surge was associated with a continental shelf wave. They the United States. Hurricane Isaac entered the southeastern Gulf of Mex-
also veried other altimetric observations of storm surge in the Gulf of ico in the early morning of August 27, forwarding slowly toward the
Mexico. Lillibridge et al. (2013) reported the storm tide (surge and tide to- west-northwest and northwest. It gradually strengthened while moving
gether) caused by Hurricane Sandy off New York from HY-2A altimetry across the Gulf of Mexico and became a hurricane around 12:00 UTC Au-
data and showed approximate agreement between HY-2A and tide- gust 28. Jason-1 and Jason-2 passed over the region around 05:00 UTC
gauge data. Chen et al. (2014) carried out a detailed study of Hurricane 28 August, at which time Isaac has a maximum sustained wind speed
Sandy storm surge using HY-2A and showed that a continental shelf of 30 m/s and a minimum central pressure of 980 mb. Isaac made its
wave was generated along the New Jersey coast. Antony et al. (2014) rst landfall along the coast of Louisiana around 00:00 UTC August 29
showed that the multi-mission satellite data signicantly enhance chance with a maximum sustained wind speed of 35 m/s and a minimum cen-
of detecting storm surges in the Bay of Bengal. A storm surge event in the tral pressure of 965 mb.
North Sea in December 2013 was also captured by the SARAL/Altika al-
timeter (Fenoglio-Marc et al., 2015). These studies show that satellite al- 2. Data and method
timetry, when compared with tide gauges, has the advantage of providing
sea surface height information offshore. Some of these studies indicate 2.1. Satellite altimetry data
that the altimetry-derived storm surges at coastal tide gauge stations
have an accuracy of 0.1 m (Han et al., 2012; Chen et al., 2014). Recent ad- The 1-Hz along-track altimetric sea surface height anomalies from
vances in coastal altimetry have reduced the scale of coastal deterioration Jason-1 (track 168) and Jason-2 (track 26) (Fig. 1) Geophysical Data Re-
of altimetric data quality from tens to ones of km. cord (GDR) products are the primary data used in this study. During the
In this paper, we integrate Jason-1 and Jason-2 observations with study period, the Jason-2 satellite has an exact repeat cycle of
tide-gauge data to investigate storm surge features off Florida in the 9.9156 days, while Jason-1 is in its geodetic mission with a near-repeat
northeastern Gulf of Mexico. The Jason-1 and Jason-2 satellite altimeters orbit. The Jason-1 and Jason-2 satellites passed over the region around

Fig. 1. Map showing the study area in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. Hurricane Isaac track locations are shown as black open dots every 6 h, with the red dot depicting the location when
Jason-1 passed over at 05:05 August 28, 2012. Blue lines are Jason-2 (J2) and Jason-1 (J1) satellite ground track. Tide-gauge stations are depicted in black squares. Black dashed lines
indicate cross-shelf transects across Clearwater Beach and Panama City where the dispersion relationship for the continental shelf wave is calculated. The 10- (green), 100- (red) and
1000-m (blue) isobaths are also shown. (For interpretation of the references to color in this gure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
246 G. Han et al. / Remote Sensing of Environment 198 (2017) 244253

05:05 and 05:19, August 28, 2012 UTC, respectively. The along-track res- reduces the sea level variances from 0.23, 0.39, 0.26, 0.27, 0.20,
olution is about 6 km. For the Jason-1 and Jason-2 1-Hz GDR products, and 0.18 m 2 to 0.18, 0.20, 0.14, 0.13, 0.17 and 0.13 m 2 at Naples,
quality-controlled data are available except within ~50 km of the north- Clearwater Beach, Cedar Keys, Apalachicola, Pensacola, and Panama
ern Gulf of Mexico coast. Jason-1 GDR data have a root-sum-square City, respectively.
error of 3.3 cm, in which the altimeter range error is 3.1 cm and the radial
orbit error is 1.5 cm (Bronner et al., 2016). Jason-2 GDR data have a root- 2.3. Surface wind data
sum-square error of 3.1 cm, in which the altimeter range error is 2.9 cm
and the radial orbit error is 1.0 cm (Dumont et al., 2016). We also use three-hourly surface wind elds from the North Amer-
For an individual satellite altimetry mission, the cross-track resolu- ican Regional Reanalysis (NARR) project. The NARR is a high-resolution
tion is always at the expense of the temporal resolution. As a result, it extension of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)
may only capture storm surges on an opportunistic basis. A recent Global Reanalysis over the North American Region (http://www.esrl.
study (Antony et al., 2014) indicates that up to 40% of the storm surges noaa.gov/psd/). The NARR model includes the very high resolution
in the Bay of Bengal are captured by TOPEX/Poseidon and Envisat altim- NCEP Eta Model (32 km in the horizontal, 45 layer in the vertical), in
etry missions. conjunction with the Regional Data Assimilation System which assimi-
We use the Jason-1 and Jason-2 1-Hz sea surface height data from lates precipitation and other variables.
the Radar Altimeter Data System (RADS) database. The GDR standard al-
titude is used. Jason-1 and Jason-2 Ku-band altimetric ranges are 3. Results
corrected for the smoothed dual-frequency ionospheric delay, wet tro-
pospheric delay from radiometer measurement, dry tropospheric 3.1. Storm surge observed by RADS 1-Hz Jason-1 and Jason-2 GDR data and
delay from the ECMWF model, and Ku-band sea state bias. Altimetric tide-gauge data
data are further corrected for the geocentric ocean tides using Global
Ocean Tide Version 4.10 (GOT4.10), standard solid earth tide and stan- The Jason-1 storm surge at the location (J1, Fig. 1) closest to the
dard pole tide. Finally we produce sea surface height anomalies relative northern Gulf of Mexico coast (about 65 km away) was 0.82 m
to the Technical University of Denmark 2015 (DTU15) mean sea surface. (Fig. 2a), resulting in a large offshore slope. There are sea level observa-
Because we are interested in storm surge, inverse barometric effect is tions at the two tide gauge stations, one to the left and the other to the
not corrected. We also use the Collecte Localisation Satellites 2011 right of the Jason-1 satellite track. The tide-gauge data at Cedar Key
(CLS11) mean sea surface, the ECMWF model water vapor and the (about 110 km southeast of J1, Fig. 1) indicate a surge of 0.77 m
FES2012 ocean tide to replace DTU15, radiometer measurements, and (Fig. 3c) at 05:05 August 28, 2012. A peak surge of 0.85 m occurred at
GOT4.10 respectively in the sensitivity study. 9:00 August 28, 2012. The tide-gauge data at Apalachicola (about
A coastal altimetry product has improved coastal processing such as 80 km northwest of J1, Fig. 1) indicate a surge of 0.67 m (Fig. 3d) at
retracking and provides more valid data points near coast. Han et al. 5:05 August 28, 2012. The peak surge of 1.05 m occurred at 12:00
(2012) showed that the storm surge estimated from the PISTACH 20- August 28, 2012. It is not surprising to see the quantitative differences
Hz Jason-2 product is close to that from the 1-Hz GDR Jason-2 product between the altimetry and tide-gauge data, in consideration of the dis-
off Newfoundland during Hurricane Igor in 2010. In this study we also tances (80 and 110 km) between J1 and the tide-gauge stations.
examine the PISTACH Jason-2 data (Mercier et al., 2010). The PISTACH The Jason-2 storm surge at the location (J2, Fig. 1) closest to the
product is an experimental Interim GDR (IGDR) product with a prelim- northern Gulf of Mexico coast (about 65 km away) is about 0.34 m
inary orbit of a radial error of 2.5 cm. Jason-2 altimetric range data from (Fig. 2b). There are also sea level observations at the two tide gauge sta-
the Red3 re-tracker in Ku band are corrected for the ionosopheric delay tions, one to the left and the other to the right of the Jason-2 satellite
derived from global ionosphere maps, decontaminated wet tropospher- track. The tide-gauge data at Panama City (about 85 km east of J2,
ic delay, standard dry tropospheric delay, and standard sea state bias. Fig. 1) indicate a surge of 0.32 m (Fig. 3e) at 05:19 August 28, 2012.
Altimetric data are further corrected for the geocentric ocean tides The peak surge of 0.75 m occurred at 15:00 August 28, 2012. The tide-
using GOT4.7, standard solid earth tide and pole tide. Finally we produce gauge data at Pensacola (about 85 km northwest of J2, Fig. 1) indicate
sea surface height anomalies relative to the CLS01 mean sea surface. We a surge of 0.20 m (Fig. 3f) at 05:19 August 28, 2012. The peak surge of
have applied a 121-point (about 36 km) low-pass lter to reduce small- 1.00 m occurred at 21:00 August 28, 2012. Again it is not surprising to
scale variability. see the quantitative differences between the altimetry and tide-gauge
We have also used the X-TRACK Jason-2 data. Note that the X-TRACK data, in consideration of the horizontal distances between J2 and the
product does not include the Jason-1 geodetic mission data. The X- tide-gauge stations.
TRACK product starts from GDR-level data, with enhancement in geo- During the passage of the satellites, the Jason-1 storm surge at loca-
physical corrections (e.g. the ionospheric corrections and the wet tropo- tions close to Naples (N1, Fig. 1) and Clearwater Beach (B1, Fig. 1) were
spheric correction) and thus more valid data points in coastal regions 0.15 and 0.45 m respectively (Fig. 2a), slightly under tide-gauge obser-
(Birol et al., 2016). The X-TRACK sea level anomalies are referenced to vations of 0.22 m (Fig. 3a) and 0.58 m (Fig. 3b). The highest surge values
the mean sea surface calculated from the along-track TOPEX/Poseidon, observed by tide gauges were 0.71 m (Fig. 3a) and 0.72 m (Fig. 3b) at
Jason-1 and Jason-2 data from 1993 to 2015. The ocean tide is corrected Naples and Clearwater Beach, respectively.
by FES2012. See Birol et al. (2016) for more detail.
3.2. PISTACH 20-Hz and X-TRACK 1-Hz Jason-2 observations
2.2. Tide-gauge data
As expected, the PISTACH 20-Hz Jason-2 data show high small-scale
Hourly de-tided sea level data relative to the mean sea level at variability (Fig. 4). The 20-Hz data are available 25 km away from coast,
each station for the tidal epoch from 1983 to 2001 at Naples, Clear- about 40 km closer to coast than the 1-Hz GDR data (Fig. 2b). However,
water Beach, Cedar Keys, Apalachicola, Pensacola, and Panama City the along-track low-pass (36-km) ltered 20-Hz data show a sea level
along the northern Gulf of Mexico coast (Fig. 1) are from the National anomaly of 0.62 m at the coastal end of the track (Fig. 4), which is
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tide-gauge data- much higher than both the 1-Hz GDR Jason-2 data and the nearby
base (https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/). The de-tiding is done by tide-gauge data. The large discrepancy between the PISTACH data and
subtracting standard NOAA predicted tides from hourly tide-gauge tide-gauge measurements is not surprising, because the PISTACH
data. We have used the de-tided sea level anomalies from 06:00 dataset as an IGDR product, though with improved coastal processing
August 16 to 06:00 September 10, 2012. For this period, the de-tiding such as retracking, does not have best available quantities implemented,
G. Han et al. / Remote Sensing of Environment 198 (2017) 244253 247

Fig. 2. RADS 1-Hz sea surface height anomalies from (a) Jason-1 and (b) Jason-2 for the baseline case referenced to the DTU15 (blue line) mean sea surface and a sensitivity case referenced
to the CLS11 (crosses) mean sea surface. The X-TRACK Jason-2 data are also shown (red circles). The vertical dashed line depicts the coastline location. (For interpretation of the references
to color in this gure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

such as for the orbit, the mean seas surface, and the atmospheric and difference between the RADS and X-TRACK data is about 3 cm from
oceanic corrections. That being said, the spatial variability of the 25N to the location where RADS data end.
smoothed signal looks similar to that of the 1-Hz GDR data and less
noisy than the 1-Hz GDR data. Clearly the PISTACH data have an offset. 3.3. Coastal surge magnitude and cross-shelf decay scale from 1-Hz GDR
Because of its large discrepancy with the tide-gauge data, the PISTACH data
product will not be considered further in this study.
As shown in Fig. 2b, the X-TRACK product has valid data points The cross-shelf sea surface height anomalies associated with a conti-
50 km closer to coast than the RADS product. These extra X-TRACK nental shelf wave have an exponentially decaying cross-shelf prole
data show a larger upward slope toward coast from 30N onshore. Over- with highest sea level at coast (LeBlond and Mysak, 1978). Chen et al.
all the X-TRACK and RADS data agree well. The root-mean-square (2014) detailed a least squares tting method of estimating cross-

Fig. 3. Residual tide-gauge sea level anomalies. The timing of satellite passing is depicted by vertical dashed lines ((a) to (d) for Jason-1, (e) and (f) for Jason-2). Dots depict surge at the
satellite passing time. Squares depict the peak surge.
248 G. Han et al. / Remote Sensing of Environment 198 (2017) 244253

Fig. 4. Altimetric 20-Hz sea surface height anomalies (open circles) from the Jason-2 PISTACH product referenced to the CLS01 mean sea surface. They are ltered with a 36-km low-pass
lter (solid black curve). The vertical dashed line depicts the coastline location.

shelf exponential decay scale and coastal surge magnitude from HY-2A Note that the above estimated decay-scale and coastal magnitude
along-track altimetric sea level anomalies. In their case, the satellite from altimetric data may not be as robust as in Chen et al. (2014), be-
track aligns approximately with the cross-shelf direction. It is obvious cause they used tens of 1-Hz altimetric data points from a single
that altimetric sea surface height proles exactly perpendicular to along-track prole. In the present study, there are only two altimetric
coast (shelf) is ideal for deriving storm surge features. In the present data points. Therefore the results are sensitive to data errors, in particu-
study, however, Jason-1 and Jason-2 tracks align overall with the lar, associated with the mean sea surface reference, the wet tropospher-
along-shelf direction. Therefore we are not able to determine the two ic correction and the ocean tide correction. As shown in Fig. 2, the sea
parameters from either Jason-1 or Jason-2 along-track prole using surface height anomalies referenced to DTU15 (the baseline case)
the least squares tting. That being said, by assuming sea surface height are not much different from those referenced to CLS11. According to
anomaly to be zero in the deep Gulf of Mexico far away from coast, we Table 1, replacing DTU15 with CLS11 reduces the estimated coastal
can uniquely determine the exponential decay scale and the coastal surge magnitude by 5%, but increases the estimated cross-shelf decay
surge magnitude using the Jason-1 and Jason-2 sea level anomalies at scale by 12%. Replacing the baseline radiometer measurement with
the intersections (B1 and B2) between the altimetric tracks and a tran- the ECMWF model decreases the estimated coastal surge magnitude
sect across Clearwater Beach (Fig. 1) and using Chen et al.'s (2014) Eq. by 5% and increases the cross-shelf decay scale by 1%. Replacing the
(1) without including the error term. During the satellite passing time, baseline GOT4.10 ocean tide model with the FES2012 ocean tide
the Jason-2 sea level anomaly (after being ltered with a seven-point model increases the estimated coastal surge magnitude and the cross-
(36 km) low-pass lter) is 0.20 m at B2 and the Jason-1 sea level anom- shelf decay scale by 2% and 1% respectively. Therefore the estimated
aly is 0.45 m at B1. As a result, the coastal magnitude is estimated to coastal surge magnitude and the cross-shelf decay scale are not overly
be 0.60 m, in good agreement with tide gauge data of 0.58 m at Clear- sensitive to the choices of mean sea surface elds or ocean tide models,
water Beach. The exponential decay scale is estimated to be 216 km. which have been signicantly improved in the past two decades or so.
With this decay scale we determine the shelf wave phase speed to be Further, replacing the RADS product with the X-TRACK product (also
16 m/s (the Coriolis parameter of 0.71e 4 s 1 at 28N). Now if we ltered with a seven-point (36 km) low-pass lter) for Jason-2 at the
combine Jason-1 (at B1), Jason-2 (at B2), and tide-gauge data (at intersecting point B2 reduces the coastal surge magnitude by 5% but in-
Clearwater Beach), the equation becomes over-determined. We creases the cross-shelf decay scale by 12% (Table 1). The sensitivity of
apply least squares tting and obtain a decay scale of 223 km and a
coastal magnitude of 0.58 m. Table 1
We also use the altimetric sea level anomalies averaged along-satel- Coastal surge magnitude and cross-shelf decay scale using the altimetric data at B1 and B2
lite-track for segments centered at the B1 (for Jason-1) and B2 (for for the sensitivity cases considered.
Jason-2) intersections. The segment length increases with an increment
Sensitivity case Coastal surge Cross-shelf decay
of 0.1 degree from within 0.1 to within 1.5 latitudinal degrees of the magnitude (m) scale (km)
two centers. The coastal surge magnitude and the exponential decay
With the CLS11 reference 0.57 241
scale are calculated from the averaged sea level anomalies at B1 and With the ECMWF water vapor correction 0.57 218
B2 for each of the 15 segments. The mean coastal surge magnitude With the FES2012 tide model correction 0.61 218
and cross-shelf decay scale are 0.65 0.02 (standard deviation) m and With the X-TRACK Jason-2 data 0.57 259
193 10 km respectively. The corresponding phase speed is 14 With the X-TRACK Jason-2 data averaged 0.64 0.04 206 32
within 1 latitudinal degree
0.7 m/s.
G. Han et al. / Remote Sensing of Environment 198 (2017) 244253 249

the estimated coastal surge magnitude and cross-shelf decay scale to (Table 2) with the maximum positive correlation coefcient is used as
the use of the X-TRACK Jason-2 product is similar to the use of the alter- the time for the surge signal to travel between the two stations. Based
native mean sea surface reference within the RADS product but a little on the time lag and the along-coast distance, we can calculate the aver-
higher than the use of the alternative geophysical corrections within age propagation speed of storm surge (Table 2). The phase speed is
the RADS product. Within the 1.5 latitudinal degrees, the averaged nearly the same from Naples to Cedar Key at 1314 m/s. From the
coastal surge magnitude using the X-TRACK product decreases by 2% phase speed, the cross-shelf e-folding decay scale is estimated to be
than using the RADS product, while the averaged cross-shelf decay 190 km (the Coriolis parameter of 0.71e4 s1 at 28N). These tide-
scale increases by 7%. Therefore the estimated storm surge parameters gauge results conrm the robustness of the altimetric estimates in Sec-
show limited sensitivity to the use of Jason-2 data from RADS versus tion 3. In contrast, the phase speed from Apalachicola to Pensacola is
X-TRACK. The results using the RADS Jason-1 and Jason-2 data agrees much smaller, at 67 m/s. Therefore the cross-shelf e-folding decay
slightly better with tide-gauge observations than those combining the scale is 85 km only (the Coriolis parameter of 0.76e4 s1 at 30N).
RADS Jason-1 data and the X-TRACK Jason-2 data in the present study. Furthermore, a rectied wavelet analysis (Torrence and Compo,
1998; Liu et al., 2007) of the sea level anomalies for the period from
4. Discussion 6:00 August 16 to 6:00 September 10, 2012 indicates a strong sub-iner-
tial oscillation dominant at a period of about 24 days at Naples, Clear-
4.1. Generation and propagation of storm surges water Beach and Cedar Key several days after the peak surges, i.e., 0.25
0.5 cpd (Fig. 8). The dominant frequency after the peak surges is even
Isaac entered the southeastern Gulf of Mexico early on August 27, lower at Apalachicola, Panama City and Pensacola, about 0.16
2012 as a tropical cyclone (Berg, 2013). The storm center translates 0.25 cpd (Fig. 9). Next we determine the dispersion relationship of the
northwestward at a speed of about 6 m/s. (Fig. 1). It appears that the on- rst-mode continental shelf wave. Two cross-shelf sections (Fig. 1),
shore Ekman transport generated by the dominant southeast winds on one right across Clearwater Beach and the other across Panama City
the right of storm track (Fig. 5) pushed the water to pile up at coast and (see Fig. 1 for location), are selected, for which the dispersion relation-
generated storm surge along the Florida coast of the Gulf of Mexico. ship of the rst-mode continental shelf wave is calculated based on
Nevertheless, the response of the upper ocean to a moving storm is the barotropic continental shelf wave theory (Brink and Chapman,
dynamically complex (Price, 1981; Sanford et al., 1987), in particular in 1987). From the dispersion relationship (Fig. 10a), we determine the
shallow waters (Wang et al., 1990). There have been model and observa- variation of the phase speed with the frequency (Fig. 10b). According
tional studies on response of coastal oceans to passing storms (e.g. Tang et to Fig. 10, theoretical phase speed at Clearwater Beach is at about 10
al., 1998; Thiebaut and Vennell, 2010; Han et al., 2012), showing that free 12 m/s at 0.250.5 cpd for the rst-mode barotropic continental shelf
continental shelf waves are generated. In the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, wave, which is in fair agreement with the tide-gauge estimate of 13
Morey et al. (2006) analyzed contribution of remote forcing to anoma- 14 m/s and in approximate agreement with the altimetric estimate of
lously large storm surge magnitude along the Florida coast of Apalachee 1416 m/s. At Panama City, the theoretical phase speed is about 7 m/s
Bay during Hurricane Dennis. They found that continental shelf wave at 0.160. 25cpd, in good agreement with the tide-gauge estimate of
propagating at a phase speed close to the storm translation speed gener- 67 m/s. The large difference in the phase speed between the Clearwa-
ated a resonance and was responsible for the large storm surge. ter Beach section and the Panama City section is due to the difference in
We have calculated correlation coefcients (Figs. 6 and 7) of sea the shelf width and bottom slope.
level time series between any two neighboring tide-gauge stations The correlation-based lag is signicantly different from the peak-to-
from 20:00 August 27 to 23:00 September 5, 2012. The time lag peak lag between Clearwater Beach and Cedar Key (Table 2). This

Fig. 5. NARR wind patterns at 21:00 August 27 (blue), 06:00 August 28 (red), and 15:00 August 28 (green), 2012 UTC. (For interpretation of the references to color in this gure legend, the
reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
250 G. Han et al. / Remote Sensing of Environment 198 (2017) 244253

Fig. 6. Lagged correlation coefcients between the post-landfall tide-gauge sea level anomalies at Naples and Clearwater Beach and between those at Clearwater Beach and Cedar Key (for
each pair a positive lag means the latter lagging the former).

difference may be because the phase speed is much faster than the 4.2. Perspectives for using satellite altimetry to monitor storm surges
storm translation speed. The remote signal from Naples and Clearwater
arrives at Cedar Key as a free continental shelf wave ahead of sea level The present study indicates that satellite altimetric data, even when
setup directly forced by local wind. The highest peak surge at Cedar they are from ground tracks in the along-shelf direction, can be used
Key seems to be associated with the forced setup. to monitor and understand storm surges on its own and/or by

Fig. 7. Lagged correlation coefcients between the post-landfall tide-gauge sea level anomalies at Apalachicola and Panama City and between those at Panama City and Pensacola (for each
pair a positive lag means the latter lagging the former).
G. Han et al. / Remote Sensing of Environment 198 (2017) 244253 251

Table 2 On the other hand, there would have not been the aforementioned
Time lag and phase speed of storm-induced sea level variation between neighboring sta- two issues if it was the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT)
tions based on the maximum correlation approach. The time lag is also determined based
on the peak surge timing (values in bracket).
satellite ying along the Jason-1 track during Hurricane Isaac. The
wide-swath interferometry altimeter (Fu, 2003) onboard the SWOT sat-
Time lag (hour) Speed (m/s) Distance (km) ellite measures sea surface height with a cross-track swath of 120 km
Naples to Clearwater Beach 5 [5] 13 240 and with a spatial resolution of ~ 1 km (https://swot.jpl.nasa.gov;
Clearwater Beach to Cedar Key 3 [7] 14 150 deCharon and Lauter, 2016). The precision for measurements over
Cedar Key to Apalachicola 4 [4] 17 240
ocean is designed to be 2 cm when averaged over a 1 km by 1 km
Apalachicola to Panama City 4.5 [3] 6 100
Panama City to Pensacola 6 [6] 7 150 area. The SWOT mission is scheduled to be launched in spring 2021.
Though there are still some opportunistic aspects for SWOT with a
swath of sea surface height anomalies to capture storm surges, it has
complementing coastal tide gauges. Satellite altimetry provides sea sur- been shown that the SWOT technique is able to reproduce most of the
face height information offshore where tide-gauge measurements are extreme storm surges in the western English Channel (Turki et al.,
not typically available, which may greatly help validate and improve 2015).
storm surge models. It also shows that while for a single altimetry mis-
sion to capture storm surges is of opportunistic nature, a constellation
with two or more altimetry missions would enhance probability. In 5. Conclusion
fact, a single tide gauge on its own is limited in its ability of monitoring
storm surges. Where possible, an appropriately distributed tide-gauge We have used Jason-1 and Jason-2 altimetric sea surface height data
network is in place for effectively monitoring storm surges. Likewise and coastal tide-gauge data to study storm surges along the Florida
an appropriate constellation of satellite altimetry can be formed to ef- coast of the Gulf of Mexico caused by Hurricane Isaac in August 2012.
fectively monitor storm surges from space in the future. RADS Jason-1 GDR observations show a storm surge of about 0.8 m
We also recognize two issues from the present study. Firstly, the es- near Cedar Key and Apalachicola decreasing westward and southward
timated cross-shelf decay scale and coastal surge magnitude in the pres- along-coast in the early morning of August 28, 2012 (UTC), which is
ent study are expected to be sensitive to data errors, due to the limited consistent with tide-gauge measurements.
availability of data points in the cross-shelf direction. Secondly, the in- The surge magnitude at the Clearwater Beach Station is estimated to
consistency of measurement accuracy between the Jason-2 regular mis- be 0.60 m from RADS Jason-1 and Jason-2 GDR data, in good agreement
sion and the Jason-1geodetic mission, the difference in the Jason-1 and with the tide-gauge value of 0.58 m. Our analysis of RADS Jason-1 and
Jason-2 pass timing and the uncertainty in the mean sea surface topog- Jason-2 GDR data reveals that the storm surge propagates northward
raphy may also affect the robustness of altimetric estimates. Neverthe- from Naples to Cedar Key with a phase speed of 1416 m/s and a
less, our altimetry-derived results show overall low sensitivity to the cross-shelf decay scale of 190220 km, in approximate agreement
uncertainties associated with the mean sea surface reference, oceanic with the estimates (1314 m/s and 190 km) from tide-gauge data. In
tide correction and wet tropospheric correction and are in good agree- contrast, an analysis of tide-gauge data reveals that the storm surge
ment with the estimates from the tide-gauge data. The low sensitivity propagates westward from Apalachicola to Pensacola with a phase
and the good agreement with the tide-gauge estimates indicate not speed of 67 m/s and a cross-shelf decay scale of about 85 km. It is fur-
only the good quality of the 1-Hz GDR data, but also the robustness of ther shown that the post-storm sea level variations at these stations are
the method used. associated with rst-mode continental shelf waves.

Fig. 8. The rectied wavelet power spectrum of using the Paul wavelet at (a) Naples, (b) Clearwater Beach and (c) Cedar Key. The Paul wavelet is chosen for good time localization. The
thick contour encloses regions of greater than the 95% condence. Below the thin curve is where edge effects may distort the results. The vertical line depicts the peak surge time.
252 G. Han et al. / Remote Sensing of Environment 198 (2017) 244253

Fig. 9. The rectied wavelet power spectrum of using the Paul wavelet at (a) Apalachicola, (b) Panama City, and (c) Pensacola. The Paul wavelet is chosen for good time localization. The
thick contour encloses regions of greater than the 95% condence. Below the thin curve is where edge effects may distort the results. The vertical line depicts the peak surge time.

We have found large discrepancy between the PISTACH Jason-2 data


and tide-gauge measurements at Panama City and Pensacola during
Hurricane Isaac. We have shown that the estimated coastal surge mag-
nitude and cross-shelf decay scale have limited sensitivity to the use of
the RADS Jason-2 product versus the coastal X-TRACK Jason-2 product.
The results combining the RADS Jason-1 and Jason-2 data are slightly
better than those combining the RADS Jason-1 data and the X-TRACK
Jason-2 data in the present study.
While previous studies (Han et al., 2012; Lillibridge et al., 2013; Chen
et al., 2014) have demonstrated the usefulness of cross-shelf altimetric
sea surface height proles for observing and understanding storm
surge features, the present study demonstrates the utility of along-
shelf altimetric sea surface height proles for the same purpose. It fur-
ther points to that a constellation of altimeter missions could be suited
to monitor storm surges, especially with coming wide-swath altimeter
missions, such as SWOT.

Acknowledgements

The 1-Hz GDR-level Jason-1 and Jason-2 data are from the Radar Al-
timetry Data System (RADS) (http://rads.tudelft.nl/rads/rads.shtml),
the 20-Hz Jason-2 data are from the PISTACH project, the X-TRACK data
(DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.6096/CTOH_X-TRACK_2015_01) are from
AVISO+ (http://aviso.altimetry.fr/index.php?id=3047), the tide-gauge
data are from NOAA's tide-gauge database (https://tidesandcurrents.
noaa.gov/) and the wind data from NOAA's NARR project (http://
www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/). The work was partially supported by the Sur-
face Water and Ocean Topography - Canada (SWOT-C) Program and the
Global Change and Air Sea Interaction Program of China: GASI-IPOVAI-
Fig. 10. (a) Dispersion relationships for rst-mode barotropic continental shelf waves and
04. We thank the three anonymous reviewers for their helpful com-
(b) phase speed as a function of the wavenumber at two cross-shelf transects across
Clearwater Beach (red curve) and Panama City (black curve) (see Fig. 1 for transect ments and suggestions.
locations). The horizontal lines in (a) depict the dominant frequencies of 0.250.5 and
0.160.25 cpd at Clearwater Beach and Panama City, the vertical lines in (a) and (b) References
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