Sea Level Training

Tidal Analysis and Prediction Packages

Analysis

For analysts of sea level data, there are at least three software packages available for tidal analysis and prediction and data quality control:

The POL TASK-2000 Package. This package originally consisted of a set of fortran programs and plotting software which was run under DOS. This is no longer provided. A modified version which can be run under Windows has been constructed by colleagues at Israel Oceanographic & Limnological Research. In addition, a version of TASK has been made available by the UK National Tidal and Sea Level Facility which can be run via the web. Click on the above link for more information or email psmsl@pol.ac.uk for further advice.

The University of Hawaii (Pat Caldwell) Package. This is probably the most used package around the world and runs on DOS computers. Email caldwell@kapau.soest.hawaii.edu for information.

Tidal software of the National Tidal Centre of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology: Click here.

The POL and Australian packages contain tidal analysis software (Doodson-type) which originated from POL, whereas the tidal analysis part of the Hawaii package is that of Michael Foreman from the Institute of Ocean Sciences in Canada. There are some subtle differences in the definitions of harmonic constants which the user should be aware of, which are described in the TASK-2000 documentation. The Foreman tidal analysis software is available separately via:

http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/sci/osap/projects/tidpack/tidpack_e.htm

while there is also a Matlab version of the Foreman analysis method at:

http://www2.ocgy.ubc.ca/~rich/

Predictions

For UK users, tidal predictions can be most easily obtained through the

POLTIPS Package which is available through the web pages of the POL Applications Group.

The UK Hydrographic Office also provides a package called TotalTide (described modestly as "The World's Most Reliable Tidal Prediction Programme") which provides tidal height and tidal stream predictions worldwide. Click on http://www.ukho.gov.uk/ and click on Products.

For French-speakers, a good source would be

http://www.shom.fr/ann_marees/cgi-bin/predit_ext/choixp which gives tidal predictions from SHOM.

The web-page http://scilib.ucsd.edu/sio/tide/ gives an extensive list of sources of information on tidal predictions and on tidal prediction software. Most of this list, provided by Scripps Institution of Oceanography, has a US emphasis and some will be of dubious quality.

Tidal Prediction Educational

• http://www.elsevier.com:80/homepage/sad/mmo/tsp.htm

This web page contains the Tidal Synthesis and Prediction Package which provides a graphical means to examine the structure of tidal signals e.g. to see which constituents are relatively more important than others. Email r-nunes-vaz@adfa.oz.au for more information.
• http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/java/MoonPhase.html

This web page shows shows Moon phases in a simple way which may be useful for the classroom.