Geology

Climate change

Aerospace engineering

Meteorology

Wind wave

Altimeter

Satellite altimetry

Oceanography

Engineering

Satellite

Geography

Radar altimeter

Buoy

Climatology

Sea state

Hindcast

Significant wave height

Environmental science

Remote sensing

Wave height

Geophysical Research Letters

Long‐term changes in ocean surface waves are relevant to society and climate research. Significant wave height climatologies and trends over 1992–2017 are intercompared in four recent high‐quality global datasets using a consistent methodology. For two products based on satellite altimetry, including one from the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative for Sea State, regional differences in mean climatology are linked to low and high sea states. Trends from the altimetry products, and two reanalysis and hindcast datasets, show general similarity in spatial variation and magnitude but with major differences in equatorial regions and the Indian Ocean. Discrepancies between altimetry products likely arise from differences in calibration and quality control. However, multidecadal observations at two buoy stations also highlight issues with wave buoy data, raising questions about their unqualified use, and more fundamentally about uncertainty in all products.

Global Wave Height Trends and Variability from New Multimission Satellite Altimeter Products, Reanalyses, and Wave Buoys