New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts

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Observations of sea-level variability in Ross Sea, Antarctica

Derek G. Goring

National Institute of Water and Atmospheric
Research Limited
P.O. Box 8602
Christchurch, New Zealand
email: d.goring@niwa.co.nz

Alex Pyne

Antarctic Research Centre
Victoria University of Wellington
Private Bag 600
Wellington, New Zealand

Abstract   Data from a new sea-level recorder station at Scott Base on Ross Island and from a long-established sea-level recorder at Cape Roberts are analysed for tides and storm surge. Tides are primarily diurnal and their amplitude reduces to almost zero every 13.66 days, corresponding to the Moon’s crossing of the equator. Global tide models are shown to give a poor fit with observations in Ross Sea, and although a local tide model gives a better fit for phase, the amplitudes are still not accurate. The only atmospheric tide that is significant is the semidiurnal solar tide whose amplitude is much larger than empirical models predict. Storm surge can be largely explained by changes in atmospheric pressure. Significant storm surge events are infrequent compared to locations at lower latitudes.

Keywords   tides; storm surge; inverted barometer; atmospheric tides

M02070 Received 2 September 2002; accepted 6 January 2003; Published 20 June 2003
New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 2003, Vol. 37: 241-249
0028-8330/03/3702-0241 $7.00 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2003

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