the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
08 Jan 2021
08 Jan 2021
Preface: Developments in the Science and History of Tides
- 1National Oceanography Centre, Joseph Proudman Building, 6 Brownlow Street, Liverpool, L3 5DA, United Kingdom
- 2School of Ocean Sciences, Bangor University, Menai Bridge, Anglesey, LL59 5AB, United Kingdom
- 3Geodesy and Geophysics Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
- 1National Oceanography Centre, Joseph Proudman Building, 6 Brownlow Street, Liverpool, L3 5DA, United Kingdom
- 2School of Ocean Sciences, Bangor University, Menai Bridge, Anglesey, LL59 5AB, United Kingdom
- 3Geodesy and Geophysics Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
Abstract. This special issue marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Liverpool Tidal Institute (LTI), one of a number of important scientific developments in 1919. The preface gives a brief history of how the LTI came about and the roles of its first two Directors, Joseph Proudman and Arthur Doodson. It also gives a short overview of the research on tides at the LTI through the years. Summaries are given of the 26 papers in the special issue. It will be seen that the topics of many of them could be thought of as providing a continuation of the research first undertaken at the LTI. Altogether, they provide an interesting snapshot of work on tides now being made by groups around the world.
Philip L. Woodworth et al.
Status: final response (author comments only)
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RC1: 'Comment on os-2020-121', Kristian Schlegel, 14 Jan 2021
I am not at all an expert on tides, but as executive editor of HGSS I can state that this preface fully serves its purpose. It gives a convenient introduction to the SI and a comprehensive overview of its content.
The only item I want to note is, that the sentences line 97-100 on page 3 are not quite correct: The authors should clearly express that five journals participate in the SI but contributions are only included from three journals.-
AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Philip Woodworth, 26 Feb 2021
Many thanks for reading through this preface. The special issue has been an enjoyable experience.
As for lines 97-100 on page 3, the wording has been changed as follows:
The Executive Editors of five journals agreed to be involved in the special issue, the largest number to have
taken part in a special issue so far. However, in the event, papers contributed to the issue
were published in only three journals: History of Geo- and Space Sciences, Solid Earth and, in particular, Ocean
Science.
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AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Philip Woodworth, 26 Feb 2021
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RC2: 'Comment on os-2020-121', David Pugh, 14 Jan 2021
Review of the Preface to “Developments in the science and history of tides”
By Woodworth, Green, Ray and Huthnance.
Emerson wrote that an Institution is the lengthened shadow of one man. For the Liverpool Tidal Institute, make that two: Joseph Proudman and Arthur Doodson. When the LTI was formed in 1919, they were Director and Secretary respectively. Gradually the importance of the Institute increased through a combination of scientific excellence, and the demands from shipping for reliable tidal predictions. Today as part of the UK National Oceanographic Centre the work on sea level and tides, recently focussed on climate change studies and flooding risks, remains world class.
This Special Edition celebrates the 100th anniversary of the LTI with a collection of 25 papers, accreted since 2019, by a worldwide array of authors, on the general theme of tidal research, following in the 1919 tradition. Many Special Editions fail because the editors neglect to sustain a coherent narrative justifying and connect the contributions. Here the four editors provide their cohering preface. The challenge is to chronicle the development of the LTI, and to relate the component chapters in the Edition to the development of tidal science more generally. This is a difficult balance to achieve in a brief preface: they succeed admirably.
The structure of their overview has three components. The first describes the establishment of the LTI in 1919, and the leading roles of Proudman and Doodson. It could have maybe recognised the way in which David Cartwright’s time as Director sustainably boosted the academic excellence of the laboratory: another shadow, for the future.
The second part looks at the development of tidal science historically, as reflected in the Special Edition chapters, focussing on the boosts given to tidal, as of course all science, by technology breakthroughs. For tides these are: measurement technology, both in situ and later, satellite altimetry; and the advent of computers capable of numerically modelling ocean dynamics with high spatial resolution. The LTI, then called the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences, played an important role in the in situ instrument development , and in building numerical models for flood warnings and for more esoteric tidal scientific topics such as third-diurnal tides. This is neatly covered in the preface, and indeed in the Special Edition chapters. Other aspects include earth tides, and the use of GNSS coordinates to integrate sea- and earth-tidal observations. This section then takes a different cut at the themes in the 26 papers, relating many to wider developments in tidal science. The integration of a wide range of topics is conceptually difficult and challenging, but it works well in this Preface. Overall the message is that tidal science has an expanding diversity of applications across other disciplines…one of the principal reasons for having this EGU Copernicus Special Edition.
The final, brief though encouraging, section is a short look to the future of tidal science. More understanding of tides in coastal waters, especially with more focussed altimetry, and better understanding of paleotides…linking to geological sciences , are presaged. Tides have always impacted on a wide spectrum of earth sciences, and will continue to do so. Another promising area of investigation is the role of vertical ocean mixing and heat transfer influenced by tidal energy dissipation, on past and future climates. The editors might have added biological tidal interactions.
Overall, this Preface is very well done. It justifies the Special Volume and its contents, while enlightening both the expert and casual reader about an important century in scientific tidal studies. In presenting it as a “snapshot of present activity”, it is important to emphasise that the subject is as actively pursued now as at any time previously. Emerson’s shadows are multiple and still very mobile!
No significant changes are needed or suggested, though for balance and emphasis the authors might consider the following small amendments.
Line 182 “around the coast of the United Kingdom, and control of the Thames Barrier.”
Line 207 “called. Cartwright’s contribution to tidal science in the latter half of the 20C was immense, and he raised the intellectual level of the Institute’s contribution enormously. The team..”.
Line 268 This points to an almost inevitable detailed historical publication on the evolution of tidal science and the contributions of the LTI and its successors. This Preface is a good starting point. Schoffield (2006) is a delightful publication dealing with the people rather than the science.
Line 301 The main component of seasonal sea level variations is the steric effect of ocean warming and cooling. This is missing here.
Line 370 this paragraph should mention the important role of ocean internal tides in tidal energy dissipation, in vertical heat transfer, and hence climate variations.
Line 385 It would be nice, and a cyclical balance here to add: “ By a neat coincidence, these biological drifters were deployed in the same area of the Irish Sea investigated by the Doodson and Proudman summer scientific cruises in the 1930s. Figure 2.”
Line 409 replace “constituents” with “processes”. Constituents just represent the shallow-water complexities, which are fundamentally the physical processes.
Line 432 “…in the history of tidal science. The work advanced at the LTI..” Tidal science was a major 19C part of the work of the BAAS and other organisations. It didn’t start in 1919.
Line 434 “snapshot of the dynamic present-day spectrum of tidal research.” More shadows for the future? Snapshot is good, but unqualified, could imply stagnation.
Does Special Issue mean a hard copy book publication? As a milestone in recording the progress of tidal science, it would be an appropriate and tangible permanent marker.
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AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Philip Woodworth, 26 Feb 2021
Many thanks for the kind remarks on the preface and for adding your own insights into the history of the LTI. The special issue has been an enjoyable experience, and, yes, we believe that there will be a printed version of the whole issue at some point.
page 2 - you said "The editors might have added biological tidal interactions." We have included that now in the last paragraph in section 3.
We have the following responses to your list of comments on the following lines in the submitted version:
lines 182, 207, 370, 409, 432, 434 - edits have been made along the lines suggested.
line 268 - we agree this does point to a wider historical study on tidal research. But for another day maybe!
line 301 - thanks for spotting this. The paragraph has been changed to read:
The term ‘radiational potential’ was introduced by Walter Munk to account for motions of a tidal nature, which are caused, directly or indirectly, by the Sun's radiation, instead of being of astronomical tidal origin due to the Moon or Sun. Radiational tides include seasonal and diurnal variations due to varying meteorological forcings. In addition, there are important non-astronomical seasonal variations in sea level due to steric (density) changes in the ocean. The magnitude of such radiational tidal contributions was estimated by Cartwright and Tayler (1971), work which came just before Cartwright’s move to the LTI. Williams et al. (2018) take a fresh look at these quasi-tidal variations and consider how they may be double-counted in storm surge forecasts and also how estimates of Highest Astronomical Tide might be affected.
line 385 - you said: It would be nice, and a cyclical balance here to add: “ By a neat coincidence, these biological drifters were deployed in the same area of the Irish Sea investigated by the Doodson and Proudman summer scientific cruises in the 1930s. Figure 2.”
We haven't added this. It would be a struggle to claim it as the same area. The Proudman cruises were based on the Isle of Man, whereas Cooper et al.'s work was off Angelsey.
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AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Philip Woodworth, 26 Feb 2021
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RC3: 'Comment on os-2020-121', Joanne Williams, 08 Feb 2021
This is the preface to the special issue on tides. It briefly summarises the history of the Liverpool Tidal Institute, founded in 1919, then introduces each of the special issue papers by topic, including those with less connections to the history. I did check carefully that none have been missed out! Section 2.3 gets a bit stilted, but I admit I'm not sure how it could be better laid out.Just a couple of comments:Since other references are also included in this introduction, can I suggest that where the special issue papers are cited in the text, they are marked in some distinctive way, perhaps as eg ‡Agnew 2020. This will avoid awkward sentences whether or not a paper is in the special issue.Section 2.1 "History of tidal science" perhaps? History of tides would be strictly speaking the changes to the tides themselves.Sorry for such a brief review, time has caught up with me on this occasion and I suspect you'd rather get it published. Let me know if there's specific aspects you want rechecking. Jo
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AC3: 'Reply on RC3', Philip Woodworth, 26 Feb 2021
Thanks for reading the preface. We agree that section 2.3 is a bit stilted but it had the role of summarising findings from quite a diverse set of papers.
As for the two sets of references, we did anguish about this ourselves. One suggestion was to underline the special issue references. Another, similar to your suggestion, was to show references as for example Lyard et al. (2021, #26) where the #26 indicates number 26 in the special issue list. In the end we decided to leave things as they are - any readers should notice there are two lists and be able to find the references they want eventually.
We have changed the heading of section 2.1 to 'History of Tidal Science in the Special Issue' following your suggestion.
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AC3: 'Reply on RC3', Philip Woodworth, 26 Feb 2021
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EC1: 'Editorial comment on os-2020-121', Trevor McDougall, 09 Feb 2021
Dear Authors, you are now in receipt of three thoughtful reviews of this OSD manuscript. I recommend that you prepare a revised version, based on these comments. I have only one additional extra point to make, namely that the article concentrates on the influence and achievements of Joseph Proudman, but neglects to mention his important roles as President and Secretary General of IAPSO (as listed on page 143 of Smythe-Wright et al. (2019)). You may want to include this aspect of Proudman's international influence.
After the open comment period ends on 5th March 2021, and after you have subitted a revised manuscript, I fully expect to be able to accept the paper for publication in OS.
Trevor McDougall (editor for this paper)
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AC4: 'Reply on EC1', Philip Woodworth, 26 Feb 2021
Many thanks for obtaining the three useful reviews and for suggesting the extra wording about Proudman. This will be included in the new version, with a reference to Smythe-Wright et al. (2019).
Note that strictly speaking Proudman was Secretary and President of IAPO and not IAPSO. The table on page 143 of Smythe-Wright et al. (2019) is headed "IAPSO presidents, secretaries, and secretaries general" and column two is indeed headed "secretaries general", but there is no mention in the caption or the column two header regarding the division between secretaries and secretaries general. You have to read on page 141 that the designation changed in 1979. Denise refers to Proudman as Secretary of IAPO on page 140.
We will of course make other edits following the comments in the three reviews and there are a couple of our own to make.
Many thanks again for the help.
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AC4: 'Reply on EC1', Philip Woodworth, 26 Feb 2021
Philip L. Woodworth et al.
Philip L. Woodworth et al.
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