NASA’s website has a cool article about how satellites have helped to generate more accurate surf forecasts by providing accurate measurements of wave heights and wind speeds across the entire globe. The data that these satellites collect is freely available in case you’re interested in using it to create your own surf forecast. Here’s a link to the Winds Report from QuikSCAT.

And here’s a satellite image of Point Reyes, California. You can see the swell lines pretty clearly. That’s a lot of waves.