Ocean waves are disturbances in the ocean that transmit energy from one place to another. It is an important parameter in the dynamic marine environment. Wave measurements over the oceans are of great significance in modeling and forecasting of weather, ocean surface conditions, ocean circulation, etc. (Zhang et al., 2015). These measurements can be used to improve the understanding of the physical processes responsible for wind-wave evolution, to validate and calibrate models for waves and other ocean processes, and to investigate local and regional wave climate, all of which have the potential to assist in shipping and offshore engineering projects (Durrant et al., 2009). Widely recognized as they are, these measurements were not obtained from space until around 3 decades ago. After the emergence of the satellite altimeter, global monitoring of ocean waves became a reality, with the publication of the first global atlas of significant wave height (SWH) data derived from GEO-3 altimeter data. Since then, SWH data from many different satellites have become available,