A global statistical intercomparison was carried out for the period January 1993 to December 1995 between wave spectra retrieved from ERS-1 SAR Wave Mode (SWM) data using an inversion algorithm of the closed nonlinear wave-to-SAR spectral mapping relation and wave spectra computed with the wave model WAM. A combined quality analysis of the satellite data and a performance analysis of the retrieval algorithm was carried out. The assessment yielded about 75 percent successful retrievals. Time series of significant wave heights in different parts of the world oceans showed good overall agreement. However, a more detailed investigation exploring the distinct spectral properties of the windsea and swell content of the wave spectra revealed a small but systematic model overprediction of windsea and an underprediction of swell systems while the overpredicted windsea can be attributed to incorrect wind fields, the underpredicted swell could be caused by deficiencies in the model
