| Summary: | The main characteristics of the significant wave height in an area of increased interest, the north Atlantic ocean, are studied based on satellite records and corresponding simulations obtained from the numerical wave prediction model WAM. The two data sets are analyzed by means of a variety of statistical measures mainly focusing on the distributions that they form. Moreover, new techniques for the estimation and minimization of the discrepancies between the observed and modeled values are proposed based on ideas and methodologies from a relatively new branch of mathematics, information geometry. The results obtained prove that the modeled values overestimate the corresponding observations through the whole study period. On the other hand, 2-parameter Weibull distributions fit well the data in the study. However, one cannot use the same probability density function for describing the whole study area since the corresponding scale and shape parameters deviate significantly for points belonging to different regions. This variation should be taken into account in optimization or assimilation procedures, which is possible by means of information geometry techniques. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.
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