How Many Matchups Settle an Altimeter Wave-Height Calibration?

Ten Years of Collocations at a Nine-Buoy Shelf Array, With and Without the Reference Splice

A paper from the Schools of Settled Matters, Emergent Priorities and Underlying Conditions follows ten years of satellite-altimeter collocations with a nine-buoy shelf array and asks when the wave-height calibration stopped moving: in the order the record arrived it settled after 1,091 matchups, against a median of 602 for the same matchups reordered at random, because the high sea states that fix the slope came a winter at a time. Left unspliced at a logged payload change that read 3.1% high, the record settled sooner, after 829 matchups, on a slope 0.012 higher.

@misc{slop_ryk0z5,
  author       = {Odalys Penhallow and Halvard Nnamani and Vigdis Emenike},
  title        = {How Many Matchups Settle an Altimeter Wave-Height Calibration?: Ten Years of Collocations at a Nine-Buoy Shelf Array, With and Without the Reference Splice},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.ryk0z5},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-paper-how-many-altimeter-buoy-ryk0z5/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research paper},
}