Accuracy assessment of recent ocean tide models

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Read Full Article Cited by JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 102, NO. C11, PAGES 25,173–25,194, 1997 Accuracy assessment of recent ocean tide models C. K. Shum Center for Space Research, The University of Texas at Austin P. L. Woodworth Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory, Bidston Observatory, Birkenhead, England O. B. Andersen Kort-og Matrikelstyrelsen, Geodetic Division, Copenhagen, Denmark G. D. Egbert College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon O. Francis Royal Observatory Belgium, Brussels, Belgium C. King Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts S. M. Klosko Hughes STX Corporation, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland C. Le Provost Laboratoire des Ecoulements Géophysiques et Industriels, Institut de Mécanique de Grenoble, Grenoble Cédex, France X. Li Center for Space Research, The University of Texas at Austin J-M Molines Laboratoire des Ecoulements Géophysiques et Industriels, Institut de Mécanique de Grenoble, Grenoble Cédex, France M. E. Parke Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado R. D. Ray Hughes STX Corporation, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland M. G. Schlax College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon D. Stammer Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts C. C. Tierney Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado P. Vincent Groupe de Recherche en Géodésie Spatiale/CNES, Toulouse, France C. I. Wunsch Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts Abstract Over 20 global ocean tide models have been developed since 1994, primarily as a consequence of analysis of the precise altimetric measurements from TOPEX/POSEIDON and as a result of parallel developments in numerical tidal modeling and data assimilation. This paper provides an accuracy assessment of 10 such tide models and discusses their benefits in many fields including geodesy, oceanography, and geophysics. A variety of tests indicate that all these tide models agree within 2–3 cm in the deep ocean, and they represent a significant improvement over the classical Schwiderski 1980 model by approximately 5 cm rms. As a result, two tide models were selected for the reprocessing of TOPEX/POSEIDON Geophysical Data Records in late 1995. Current ocean tide models allow an improved observation of deep ocean surface dynamic topography using satellite altimetry. Other significant contributions include their applications in an improved orbit computation for TOPEX/POSEIDON and other geodetic satellites, to yield accurate predictions of Earth rotation excitations and improved estimates of ocean loading corrections for geodetic observatories, and to allow better separation of astronomical tides from phenomena with meteorological and geophysical origins. The largest differences between these tide models occur in shallow waters, indicating that the current models are still problematic in these areas. Future improvement of global tide models is anticipated with additional high-quality altimeter data and with advances in numerical techniques to assimilate data into high-resolution hydrodynamic models. Received 26 January 1996; accepted 3 January 1997. Read Full Article Cited by Citation: Shum, C. K., et al. (1997), Accuracy assessment of recent ocean tide models, J. Geophys. Res., 102(C11), 25,173–25,194. Copyright 1997 by the American Geophysical Union.

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