Articles | Volume 22, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-22-1681-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-22-1681-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| Highlight paper
| 
28 May 2026
Research article | Highlight paper |
| 28 May 2026
| 28 May 2026
Tide of the Time: Global tidal characteristics observed from in-situ measurements
Michael G. Hart-Davis
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Deutsches Geodätisches Forschungsinstitut, Technische Universität München, Germany
Roman Sulzbach
GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, Telegrafenberg, Potsdam, Germany
Stefan A. Talke
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, California Polytechnic State University, California, USA
Ivan D. Haigh
Dept. of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering, University of Central Florida, Florida, USA
Center for Integrated Coastal Research, University of Central Florida, Florida, USA
Marta Marcos
IMEDEA (UIB-CSIC), Esporles, Balearic Islands, Spain
Philip Woodworth
National Oceanography Centre, Liverpool, UK
Richard Ray
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
Ole B. Andersen
DTU Space, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
Florent Lyard
LEGOS, Université de Toulouse, CNES, CNRS, IRD, Toulouse, France
Ergane Fouchet
Mercator Ocean International, Toulouse, France
Denise Dettmering
Deutsches Geodätisches Forschungsinstitut, Technische Universität München, Germany
Maik Thomas
GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences, Telegrafenberg, Potsdam, Germany
Institute for Meteorology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Florian Seitz
Deutsches Geodätisches Forschungsinstitut, Technische Universität München, Germany
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Angélique Melet, Roderik van de Wal, Angel Amores, Arne Arns, Alisée A. Chaigneau, Irina Dinu, Ivan D. Haigh, Tim H. J. Hermans, Piero Lionello, Marta Marcos, H. E. Markus Meier, Benoit Meyssignac, Matthew D. Palmer, Ronja Reese, Matthew J. R. Simpson, and Aimée B. A. Slangen
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Philip L. Woodworth
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Nil Carrion-Bertran, Albert Falqués, Francesca Ribas, Daniel Calvete, Rinse de Swart, Ruth Durán, Candela Marco-Peretó, Marta Marcos, Angel Amores, Tim Toomey, Àngels Fernández-Mora, and Jorge Guillén
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Ole Baltazar Andersen, Stine Kildegaard Rose, Adili Abulaitijiang, Shengjun Zhang, and Sara Fleury
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Arne Bendinger, Sophie Cravatte, Lionel Gourdeau, Laurent Brodeau, Aurélie Albert, Michel Tchilibou, Florent Lyard, and Clément Vic
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Stefan A. Talke, David A. Jay, and Heida L. Diefenderfer
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 27, 2807–2826, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-2807-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-27-2807-2023, 2023
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Adam T. Devlin, David A. Jay, Stefan A. Talke, and Jiayi Pan
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Víctor Malagón-Santos, Aimée B. A. Slangen, Tim H. J. Hermans, Sönke Dangendorf, Marta Marcos, and Nicola Maher
Ocean Sci., 19, 499–515, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-19-499-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-19-499-2023, 2023
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Climate change will alter heat and freshwater fluxes as well as ocean circulation, driving local changes in sea level. This sea-level change component is known as ocean dynamic sea level (DSL), and it is usually projected using computationally expensive global climate models. Statistical models are a cheaper alternative for projecting DSL but may contain significant errors. Here, we partly remove those errors (driven by internal climate variability) by using pattern recognition techniques.
Felix L. Müller, Stephan Paul, Stefan Hendricks, and Denise Dettmering
The Cryosphere, 17, 809–825, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-809-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-809-2023, 2023
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Thinning sea ice has significant impacts on the energy exchange between the atmosphere and the ocean. In this study we present visual and quantitative comparisons of thin-ice detections obtained from classified Cryosat-2 radar reflections and thin-ice-thickness estimates derived from MODIS thermal-infrared imagery. In addition to good comparability, the results of the study indicate the potential for a deeper understanding of sea ice in the polar seas and improved processing of altimeter data.
Ariadna Martín, Angel Amores, Alejandro Orfila, Tim Toomey, and Marta Marcos
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 23, 587–600, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-587-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-587-2023, 2023
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Tropical cyclones (TCs) are among the potentially most hazardous phenomena affecting the coasts of the Caribbean Sea. This work simulates the coastal hazards in terms of sea surface elevation and waves that originate through the passage of these events. A set of 1000 TCs have been simulated, obtained from a set of synthetic cyclones that are consistent with present-day climate. Given the large number of hurricanes used, robust values of extreme sea levels and waves are computed along the coasts.
Carolina M. L. Camargo, Riccardo E. M. Riva, Tim H. J. Hermans, Eike M. Schütt, Marta Marcos, Ismael Hernandez-Carrasco, and Aimée B. A. Slangen
Ocean Sci., 19, 17–41, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-19-17-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-19-17-2023, 2023
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Sea-level change is mainly caused by variations in the ocean’s temperature and salinity and land ice melting. Here, we quantify the contribution of the different drivers to the regional sea-level change. We apply machine learning techniques to identify regions that have similar sea-level variability. These regions reduce the observational uncertainty that has limited the regional sea-level budget so far and highlight how large-scale ocean circulation controls regional sea-level change.
Philip L. Woodworth and John M. Vassie
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 4387–4396, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-4387-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-4387-2022, 2022
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An electronic data set of tidal measurements at St. Helena in 1761 by Nevil Maskelyne is described. These data were first analysed by Cartwright in papers on changing tides, but his data files were never archived. The now newly digitised Maskelyne data have been reanalysed in order to obtain an updated impression of whether the tide has changed at that location in over two and a half centuries. Our main conclusion is that the major tidal constituent (M2) has changed little.
Ramin Familkhalili, Stefan A. Talke, and David A. Jay
Ocean Sci., 18, 1203–1220, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-18-1203-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-18-1203-2022, 2022
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Storm surges, tides, and high river flows often combine to cause flooding in estuaries, a problem known as compound flooding. In this study, we investigate these factors and how changes to estuary and river geometry influence peak water levels. This study offers an analytical framework for reducing estuary flood risk via a better understanding of how bathymetry, surge timescale, and river discharge affect surge and tidal amplitudes and flood heights and inundation in these systems.
Richard D. Ray
Ocean Sci., 18, 1073–1079, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-18-1073-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-18-1073-2022, 2022
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Seasonal variability of the M2 ocean tide can be detected at many ports. The physical mechanisms underlying seasonality, in the broadest terms, are astronomical, frictional–advective interactions, and climate processes. Some of these induce annual modulations, some semiannual, in amplitude, phase, or both. This note reviews how this occurs and gives an example from each broad category. Phase conventions and their relationship with causal mechanisms, as well as nomenclature, are also addressed.
Begoña Pérez Gómez, Ivica Vilibić, Jadranka Šepić, Iva Međugorac, Matjaž Ličer, Laurent Testut, Claire Fraboul, Marta Marcos, Hassen Abdellaoui, Enrique Álvarez Fanjul, Darko Barbalić, Benjamín Casas, Antonio Castaño-Tierno, Srđan Čupić, Aldo Drago, María Angeles Fraile, Daniele A. Galliano, Adam Gauci, Branislav Gloginja, Víctor Martín Guijarro, Maja Jeromel, Marcos Larrad Revuelto, Ayah Lazar, Ibrahim Haktan Keskin, Igor Medvedev, Abdelkader Menassri, Mohamed Aïssa Meslem, Hrvoje Mihanović, Sara Morucci, Dragos Niculescu, José Manuel Quijano de Benito, Josep Pascual, Atanas Palazov, Marco Picone, Fabio Raicich, Mohamed Said, Jordi Salat, Erdinc Sezen, Mehmet Simav, Georgios Sylaios, Elena Tel, Joaquín Tintoré, Klodian Zaimi, and George Zodiatis
Ocean Sci., 18, 997–1053, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-18-997-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-18-997-2022, 2022
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This description and mapping of coastal sea level monitoring networks in the Mediterranean and Black seas reveals the existence of 240 presently operational tide gauges. Information is provided about the type of sensor, time sampling, data availability, and ancillary measurements. An assessment of the fit-for-purpose status of the network is also included, along with recommendations to mitigate existing bottlenecks and improve the network, in a context of sea level rise and increasing extremes.
Martin Horwath, Benjamin D. Gutknecht, Anny Cazenave, Hindumathi Kulaiappan Palanisamy, Florence Marti, Ben Marzeion, Frank Paul, Raymond Le Bris, Anna E. Hogg, Inès Otosaka, Andrew Shepherd, Petra Döll, Denise Cáceres, Hannes Müller Schmied, Johnny A. Johannessen, Jan Even Øie Nilsen, Roshin P. Raj, René Forsberg, Louise Sandberg Sørensen, Valentina R. Barletta, Sebastian B. Simonsen, Per Knudsen, Ole Baltazar Andersen, Heidi Ranndal, Stine K. Rose, Christopher J. Merchant, Claire R. Macintosh, Karina von Schuckmann, Kristin Novotny, Andreas Groh, Marco Restano, and Jérôme Benveniste
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 411–447, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-411-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-411-2022, 2022
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Global mean sea-level change observed from 1993 to 2016 (mean rate of 3.05 mm yr−1) matches the combined effect of changes in water density (thermal expansion) and ocean mass. Ocean-mass change has been assessed through the contributions from glaciers, ice sheets, and land water storage or directly from satellite data since 2003. Our budget assessments of linear trends and monthly anomalies utilise new datasets and uncertainty characterisations developed within ESA's Climate Change Initiative.
Carsten Bjerre Ludwigsen, Ole Baltazar Andersen, and Stine Kildegaard Rose
Ocean Sci., 18, 109–127, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-18-109-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-18-109-2022, 2022
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This study uses a novel satellite-independent approach to quantify the components of Arctic sea level change. The 21-year time series allows studying climate-related changes in Arctic sea level. The decomposition shows that fresh water is governing sea level change, while Arctic land ice loss contributes to a small Arctic sea level rise. The reconstruction yields good agreement with sea level observations from altimetry, despite both datasets being challenged by the harsh environment.
David T. Pugh, Edmund Bridge, Robin Edwards, Peter Hogarth, Guy Westbrook, Philip L. Woodworth, and Gerard D. McCarthy
Ocean Sci., 17, 1623–1637, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-17-1623-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-17-1623-2021, 2021
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Observations of sea level, taken manually by reading a tide pole, were carefully taken at a number of locations around Ireland in 1842 as part of the first land survey of Ireland. Our study investigates how useful this type of sea level observation is for understanding mean sea level and tidal change. We find that when carefully adjusted for seasonal, meteorological, and astronomical factors, these data can provide important insights into changing sea levels.
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Editorial statement
Tide gauges have been critical sources for sea level research, enabling the development of tidal theory and an understanding of local variations that occur across the global oceans. Tides play important roles in a variety of oceanographic and geodetic applications; characterizing their spatial variability is valuable for applications ranging from fishing to flood risk management. Coastal characteristics of ocean tides are presented based on 3,591 high-frequency tide gauge observations. The analysis shows that 125 out of 237 long-time series show statistically significant trends in one or more tide constituents. Particularly the novel results on tidal high-water durations and tidal trends are of interest.
The paper provides a global summary of a number of tidal characteristic quantities that will be useful for tide experts but also for the greater oceanographic community, in particular sea level researchers, providing insights crucial for a wide range of biogeochemical processes. It also presents insights that can be useful for local communities. This paper, along with its accompanying data, could become an important reference in the field.
Tide gauges have been critical sources for sea level research, enabling the development of tidal...
Short summary
Ocean tides are a critical component of the global climate system, influencing a wide range of geophysical processes. Tide gauges have been a valuable source for developing the theory of ocean tides and for understanding their variability. We provide updated and new insights on tidal properties using the Global Extreme Sea Level Analysis tide gauge dataset, intended to be useful to a range of applications, from navigation and fishing communities to ocean scientists and tidal experts.
Ocean tides are a critical component of the global climate system, influencing a wide range of...
