CoAuthors

Susan Howard (Earth and Space Research, USA); Richard Ray (Geodesy & Geophysics Lab., NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA); Ole Anderesen (National Space Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark); Laurie Padman (Earth and Space Research, USA); Frank Nilsen (The University Centre in Svalbard, Norway); Denise Dettmering (DGFI-TUM, Germany)

Ocean tides are a vital component of global ocean circulation. In the Arctic Ocean, tides affect ocean circulation and sea ice dynamics and thermodynamics. Significant advances have been made in global ocean tide models; however, difficulties remain in the Arctic due to the poorly-mapped bottom topography, the dynamical influence of sea ice, and limitations on satellite altimetry measurements due to the high latitudes and presence of sea ice. The limited network of in-situ tide gauges in the Arctic is an additional factor. In-situ measurements from tide gauges or ocean bottom pressure sensors are crucial sources of information that can be used to understand the spatial variability of tides and validate the advances made in modelled estimates. Global in-situ tidal constituent databases contain a limited number of observations in the Arctic, with, for example, TICON-3 containing 111 above 60°N and 21 above 70°N, with the distribution of these measurements mainly being around North America. Here, we present the results of a concerted effort to produce a comprehensive dataset of tidal constituents in the Arctic region. This dataset combines analyses of in-situ measurements from tide gauges, ocean bottom pressure sensors and GNSS reflectometry, which results in 691 measurements above 60°N and 313 above 70°N with a much greater spatial distribution across the full Arctic Ocean. The resultant dataset is quality assessed and compared to recent tide models to determine the reliability of the different data sources used.

Data: https://arcticdata.io/catalog/view/doi:10.18739/A2D795C4N
Preprint: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3277941/v1