Abstract: The wave glider is a novel unmanned mobile observation platform powered by wave energy, capable of autonomous navigation for marine meteorological observations, providing a new technological means for marine environmental monitoring. To evaluate the reliability and applicability of a domestically developed wave glider, an observation experiment was conducted in the South China Sea southeast of Sanya from September 11 to 16, 2023. Using data from the anchored buoy "South China Sea No. 5" as a reference, the meteorological and hydrological observation performance of the wave glider was quantitatively assessed. The results indicate that the standard deviations of air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and atmospheric pressure observed by the wave glider were 0.45℃, 2.20%, 0.86 m·s^-¹, and 1.49 hPa, respectively.Compared with the "South China Sea No. 5" buoy, the root mean square deviations were 0.46℃, 1.50%, 1.12 m·s^-¹, and 0.3 hPa,with correlation coefficients of 0.85, 0.79, 0.72, and 0.98, respectively, demonstrating good consistency and reliability. The equipment responded rapidly to tropical depression processes and achieved temperature and salinity profile observations down to 90 meters below the sea surface. Analysis combined with satellite remote sensing and reanalysis data further revealed that atmospheric pressure is less affected by local sea surface processes, while air temperature, relative humidity, and wind respond more significantly to meso- and small-scale sea surface structures. The experiment verifies the reliability of the domestically produced wave glider and its capability for integrated "air-sea interface—subsurface profile" observation, providing an effective mobile observation platform for marine meteorological monitoring, numerical weather prediction improvement, and satellite product validation.

Key words: wave glider, marine meteorology, sea surface observations, experimental evaluation, South China Sea