Accurate extraction of ocean tidal constituents from coastal satellite altimeter records

Abstract

Extracting tidal constituents in coastal regions remains a major challenge due to complex bathymetry, nonlinear shallow-water effects, and land contamination in satellite altimetry measurements. While tide gauges provide high-precision observations, their sparse spatial coverage limits global coastal studies. To address these limitations, this study uses the International Altimetry Service 2024 (IAS2024) dataset, derived from reprocessed Jason-1/2/3 altimetry data covering 2002-2022, to extract ten primary tidal constituents in global coastal waters. Accuracy is assessed against four global tidal models and 164 tide gauge records. IAS2024 achieves accuracy comparable to EOT20 and DTU16 and superior to FES2014 and FES2022. For the eight major constituents, its root sum square error is 11.26 cm, and it significantly outperforms traditional models for long-period constituents. Its strong performance within 10 km of the coast highlights its potential for coastal sea-level research, tidal energy assessment, and hydrodynamic modeling.

Type
Journal article
Publication
Frontiers in Marine Science, 12, 1592765