New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts
Tides and sea-level variability in the south-west Pacific from TOPEX/Poseidon
M. G. G. Foreman
Institute of Ocean Sciences
P.O. Box 6000
Sidney, BC V8L 4B2
Canada
R. G. Bell
National Institute of Water and Atmospheric
Research Limited
P.O. Box 11 115
Hamilton, New Zealand
email: r.bell@niwa.co.nz
J. Y. Cherniawsky
Institute of Ocean Sciences
P.O. Box 6000
Sidney, BC V8L 4B2
Canada
B. Beckley
Raytheon ITSS Corporation
Lanham
Maryland, United States
Abstract A harmonic-analysis technique is used to compute
tidal amplitudes and phases over the south-west Pacific Ocean from the first
300 cycles (up to November 2000) of TOPEX/Poseidon satellite altimetry. The
analysis is performed along groundtracks and at track crossover locations
and the resultant harmonics are shown to compare favourably with those from
open-coast sea-level gauges and from regional and global tidal models. Small-scale
oscillations (<400 km) in along-track amplitudes and phases are used to
identify likely regions of M2 internal tide generation, or aliasing
between K1 and semi-annual signals. Tidal harmonics derived from
satellite altimetry were used to improve the open-sea boundary forcing for
a limited-area tidal model and produce a better validation with coastal sea-level
gauges.
Keywords satellite altimetry; TOPEX/Poseidon; tides;
internal tides; model; South Pacific Ocean
M03023; Received 9 May 2003; accepted 12 May 2004; Online publication date
5 August 2004
New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 2004, Vol. 38:
649-669
0028-8330/04/3804-0649 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2004
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