Tides and Numerical Modelling of Tides

Jithin Abraham K
Project Scientist B
Modelling and Data Assimilation DIvision (MDA)
Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS)

Training course on “Fundamentals of Ocean Modelling”

27 September - 1 October, 2021
International Training Centre for Operational Oceanography (ITCOocean)
ESSO-INCOIS, Hyderabad, India
 Barotropic tides in the Ocean
Tides are the periodic rise and fall of the ocean surface, which are generated as the
response of the gravitational body force exerted by the Moon and Sun and the
rotation of the Earth-Moon-Sun system.
 Nature of tidal oscillations
An area has a semidiurnal tidal cycle if it experiences two
high and two low tides of approximately equal size every
lunar day.

An area has a diurnal tidal cycle if it experiences one high

and one low tide every lunar day.

A mixed tide is a tidal cycle which consists of two unequal

high tides and two unequal low tides in approximately a 24
hour period.
Tide generating forces

● Gravitational attraction of moon and sun.

● The rotation of earth-moon system.

Barycentre, due to the difference of the mass of earth and moon,

is located approximately 3/4 of the earth’s radius from the earth
center.
 Tide generating force

The earth and moon are locked in the motion, rotating with
the period of one month.
The earth-moon system is kept in the dynamical
equilibrium by two forces. One of them is the centrifugal
force:

Here M is the mass of earth or the moon, V is the velocity of the

earth or moon and ro is the radius of the orbit either of the earth
(ro = roe ) or the orbit of the moon (ro = rom )

The second force (Fg ) is the force of gravitational attraction.

For the earth-moon system it is expressed as:

Reference
The Oceanography of Tides
by
Zygmunt Kowalik and John Luick
For the system earth-moon to be in the equilibrium the vector sum of the two forces ought to be zero, both in the
center of the earth and in the center of the moon. Therefore, Fw must be equal to Fg

The rotational motion around common center of gravity

is somewhat different from the motion described by a
wheel. Earth and moon revolves around the common
center without rotation through a simple translation.

Reference
The Oceanography of Tides
by
Zygmunt Kowalik and John Luick
To simplify considerations and to make picture more lucid we shall move the barycentre O2 from inside the
earth to the outside. The revolution of the earth around point O2 proceeds in such way that every particle
located on earth describe a circle of the same radius r = ro. Therefore, for each particle

Thus, every point in the revolving motion is subject to the equal and
parallel centrifugal forces. Stability of the earth-moon system will require
that the sum of all centrifugal and attraction forces should be zero.
While this statement is true for the centers of the earth and moon the
balance does not occur in every point leading to the forces generating
tides.
To find these forces let us consider a mass m located on the earth’s surface. The centrifugal force Fω is the
same for the every point on the earth and according to Previous equation is equal to the force of attraction
which moon exerts on the mass (m) located at the center of the earth;

The force of the moon attraction acting on the mass m located

on the earth’s surface

Projection of these forces on the tangential direction to the

earth’s surface yield,

and
Where Z is zenith angle.
 Summing up these forces we arrive at the tide generating force Ft

From the triangle O1, m, O3 we can find:

Therefore sin(Z + α) can be expressed by sin Z and

Again using the triangle O1 , m, O3 the distance r is defined as:

Since the equatorial parallax ratio for the moon re /l is very small number (1/60.3) and for the sun this number
is even smaller
the terms of the higher order (re2 /l2 ~ 1/3600) will be neglected.
Developing above equation into binomial series we arrive at,

Introducing this result into the horizontal component

of the tide generating force, yields,
To the tidal forces the notion of the potential (Ω) can be ascribed assuming that force per
unit mass (F/m) and potential are connected as follows

Reference
The Oceanography of Tides
by
Zygmunt Kowalik and John Luick
Spring-Neap Cycle of tides
Neap–spring tidal cycles, the result of
the phase changes of the Moon, are the
most pronounced of these.

Spring tides occur every 14.76 days

Tidal ranges during spring-neap cycle
Major tidal frequencies

Tidal variability can be represented as a sum of

different constituents.

Each constituent represents a periodic

change or variation in the relative
positions of the Earth, Moon and Sun.

The frequencies are determined by the cycles in

the motions of moon, sun and earth.
Harmonic Analysis
The mathematical process by which the observed
tide or tidal current at any place is separated into
basic harmonic constituents.

Tidal variations can be represented as a sum of

finite number of harmonics

Application of Fourier analysis to the tidal motions : harmonic

analysis ( William Thomson's)
TOOLS

TASK (PSMSL/POL Tidal Analysis Software Kit

2000)

T_TIDE (Pawlowicz's et al., 2002 )

U_tide

(fortran, matlab, Python)

Tidal currents and tidal ellipses

Tidal currents : Horizontal flow accompanied by

rise and fall of tide

Tidal currents can be expressed in terms of

ellipses.

Semimajor axis of the ellipse represents the

maximum amplitude of tidal current.
Numerical Modelling of barotropic tides
● Sir Isaac Newton was the first who developed the tide-generating force based on gravitational theory and provided an explanation for
the cause of tides (Equilibrium theory).
● Later, Pierre-Simon Laplace, a French mathematician, introduced the dynamical theory of tides by considering the dynamical nature
of tide generating force, rotational effects and gravity (Dynamical theory).
● He formulated the hydrodynamical equation for tides, known as Laplace Tidal Equations (LTE) in 1775 and explained many realistic
features of tides in the ocean basins including amphidromic systems.
● However, solving the LTE was difficult without simplifying the equations and therefore prediction of tides based on simplified LTE in
the coastal regions was not accurate for practical applications.

Numerical models

● A phenomenal progress in the study of tides was made with the emergence of numerical ocean modelling using digital computers in
the second half of the 20th century.

● Many researchers attempted to derive solutions of LTE numerically and prepared the global maps of ocean tides.

● The initial attempts on global tidal modelling were focused on mapping the semidiurnal tides (M2 and S2 ) in the open ocean using
coarse grid resolutions, while shallow coastal regions were ignored (Bogdanov and Magarik, 1967; Pekeris and Accad, 1969;
Schwiderski, 1979).
 Barotropic tidal modelling : Basic equations

Tides are shallow water waves. The model consists of a system of vertically integrated continuity equation
and the equations of momentum.

Frictional term Viscous term

The numerical solution of the equations is obtained by discretizing the equations in space using an
explicit finite difference scheme over a numerical grid and in time.
The model requires detailed bathymetry (water depth data) for the model
domain, a definition of the initial sea state usually just a still water level,
and some data to force the model.

For a tidal model the forcing data will usually be the known tides around
the edge of the model – a surge model would also include wind data and
atmospheric pressure data.

The model will then use the equations governing fluid flow to compute the
tidal level and currents for the required period of time
● Parke and Hender-shott (1980) were the first who derived more
realistic maps of M2 and K1 tides in the global ocean.
● In order to obtain more accurate global tidal solutions, Schwiderski
(1980a) adopted a novel approach, i.e. the assimilation of Island
and coastal tide gauge data into a hydrodynamic model, which was
a major milestone in the global tidal modelling.
● Schwiderski (1980a, 1983) assimilated about 2000 coastal tide
gauge data into a global hydrodynamic model with a grid
resolution of 1 ◦ x1 ◦ and prepared global tidal charts for 10 major
tidal constituents (diurnal, semidiurnal and long period tides),
which was one of the first reliable global tidal solutions.
Parke and Hender-shott (1980)

The inaccuracies in the bathymetry and

poor representation of coastal and
shallow regions in the model restricted its
use in the coastal and geophysical
applications.
Schwiderski (1983)
Tides from satellite altimetry
A better understanding of global distribution of tides and
unprecedented increase in the accuracy of the global tidal
maps is achieved by the measurements of sea surface
height using satellite altimetry.

Cartwright and Ray (1990, 1991) extracted the tidal signals

from altimeter observations obtained from the Geosat
satellite, which was launched in 1985.

Even though the tidal solutions from Geosat were better

than numerical models at that time, it had limitations due to
short data record and orbital errors.

Later, more accurate global tidal maps were made available

with the launch of the high precision altimeter mission,
Topex/Poseidon (T/P), in 1992 and followed by Jason-1 and
2 (Schrama and Ray, 1994).

Many researchers used this data in the subsequent years

and prepared more accurate global empirical
tidal solutions based on altimeter (Ma et al., 1994; Desai and
Wahr, 1995).
How tidal signals are extracted from satellite altimeter : Tidal frequency aliasing
● Tides have diurnal and semidiurnal periods but satellite repeat cycle is couple of days. For Topex/Poseidon
satellites period is 10 days.

● So, tidal signals from satellite altimeter is extracted by aliasing tidal periods into higher periods, called
tidal frequency aliasing.

● For the TOPEX/Poseidon mission, aliasing period is 62.11 and 58.74 days for the M2 and S2 tidal
constituents respectively.

(Parke et al., 1987).

Egbert et al. (1994) prepared the global tidal solutions
(TPXO) using assimilation of satellite data into
hydrodynamic models and it was updated in the following
years with the availability of more accurate tidal solutions
from altimeter data (Egbert and Erofeeva (2002a), TPXO7/8/9
: https : //www.tpxo.net/home).

● More accurate estimation of barotropic

energy fluxes

● Identification of significant loss of tidal

energy in the deep ocean 33% via
internal tide generation
 TPXO Global tidal Models

TPXO is a series of fully-global models of

ocean tides, which best-fits, in a least-
squares sense, the Laplace Tidal Equations
and altimetry data. Each next model in TPXO
series is based on updated bathymetry and
assimilates more data compared to previous
versions.

The TPXO models include complex

amplitudes of MSL-relative sea-surface
elevations and transports/currents for eight
primary (M2, S2, N2, K2, K1, O1, P1, Q1), two
long period (Mf,Mm) and 3 non-linear (M4,
MS4, MN4) harmonic constituents (plus 2N2
and S1 for TPXO9 only).

Available at
https://www.tpxo.net/global
 Other global tidal models OTPS

Since then, many global tidal models, such as GOT99.2

(Ray, 1999), FES2004 (Lyard et al., 2006) and FES2012
(Carrère et al., 2012), were developed in the following years
by data assimilation, higher horizontal resolution and
inclusion of more tidal constituents.

A detailed review on the development and accuracy of the

global tidal models is available in Stammer et al. (2014).
GOT99.2
FES2004
Parallel to the development of satellite-based
global tidal solutions, pure hydrodynamical
models with finite element mesh, with higher
grid resolution in the coastal and shallow
seas, were also being developed.

One of the pioneering works on this was done

by Le Provost et al. (1994), in which they used
a finite element hydrodynamic model with
assimilation of altimeter data, and derived
more accurate global tidal maps.

The next important development of the global

tidal modelling was combined use of satellite
altimetry data, coastal tide gauges and
hydrodynamical models by using the data
assimilation techniques (Egbert et al., 1994;
Kantha, 1995; Shum et al., 1997).
Initial conditions
Usually starts from zero

Tides as Boundary conditions

Elevations

Time series and spectral values (amplitude and phase of

tidal constituents) from global models at open
boundaries

ROMS : both elevation and currents as amplitude

and phase of elevation and currents in complex form

ADCIRC and FVCOM : tidal elevation

Tidal currents
For regional applications
Tides as body force (MOM)
Tidal potential
For global models
 Barotropic and internal tides in the Ocean
Barotropic tides
● Periodic rise and fall of ocean surface caused by the gravitational force exerted by the
sun and moon and the rotation of earth-moon-sun system.

● Tidal oscillations are combinations of waves having different frequencies, known as

tidal harmonics.

● Origin of Constituents : Linked to the relative position or rotation of the Sun, Moon and
Earth. ● The dominant periodicities
Half a day (semidiurnal)
One day (diurnal).
● Main constituents
Semidiurnal : M2, S2 and N2
Diurnal : K1 and O1.
● Tidal currents : Horizontal tidal flow Map of tidal energy dissipation in the ocean
What happens to the tidal energy in the ocean ? what are the
implications ?

● Tides lose about 3.5 TW energy in the ocean.

● Dissipates by means of bottom drag in the shallow seas

(2.5TW).

● Conversion into Baroclinic over topography Egbert and Ray, 2002

internal tide generation (about 1 TW)
 Baroclinic Tides (Internal tides)
How tides generate internal waves ? Importance

● Internal tides are internal gravity waves at tidal ● Ocean Mixing

periods generated due to interaction of barotropic Half of the energy for interior mixing.
tides with steep topographic features such as Maintain the stratification
● Nutrient distribution
continental slopes and submarine ridges.
● Biological Productivity and ecosystem
● Sediment transport
● Once they are generated over the topography, ● Sound Propagation
they can freely propagate into larger distances ● Offshore industries
across the ocean.

● The presence of these internal waves can be

detected from temperature and velocity
measurements

Nugroho et al., 2018

Propagation of internal tides in the ocean

Propagate 1000’s of km
Without much dissipation

About 30 % of the energy dissipates near the

generation sites
Propagation of internal tides on the continental slope
Modelling of internal tides

● Initial attempts to simulate internal tides numerically across the oceanic ridges and continental
margins were conducted using two-dimensional (2D) finite difference models (1980’s)
● For example, numerical 2D models were used to simulate the internal tide generation in the Maline
Shelf (Sherwin and Taylor, 1990) and the Bay of Biscay (Serpette and Mazé, 1989). These studies
identified onshore and offshore propagation of internal tides from the shelf break and beam-like
propagation of internal tide due to scattering of internal tides into higher vertical modes in the
continental margins.
● In addition, these studies also suggested the possibility of strong internal tide mixing near the
generation sites, which is later confirmed by in-situ observations.

● Using POM (Princeton Ocean Model) configured for the Australian North West Shelf, Holloway
(1996) suggested that three-dimensional (3D) effects are important for the accurate prediction of
internal tide amplitude.
● Later, many researchers implemented 3D models to study the internal tide generation at many
regions around the world oceans (Cummins and Oey, 1997; Niwa and Hibiya, 2001; Holloway et al.,
2001; Merrifield and Holloway, 2002)
The first global internal tide fields from
numerical models were computed by
Arbic et al. (2004) and Simmons et al.
(2004b). Though solutions were based
on a two-layer model with a coarse
horizontal resolution (1/4 ◦ ), the energy
conversion and tidal dissipation in the
model were close to the observed
values obtained from satellite altimeters.

Arbic et al. (2004)

Simmons (2008) studied M2 internal tide In these early global internal tide models, stratification was
generation in the global ocean with considered to be horizontally uniform and atmospheric forcing
realistic bathymetry, higher horizontal was absent.
grid resolution (1/8 ◦ ) and vertical levels
(16 levels). They noticed energy transfer Arbic et al. (2010, 2012) used an eddy-resolving model with a
from M 2 internal tides into its higher resolution of 1/12.5 ◦ and 32 vertical levels by realistic
and sub harmonics and enhanced atmospheric forcing to simulate the internal tides in the global
mixing in the turning latitudes due to ocean. They noted that realistic horizontal variation of the
Parametric Subharmonic Instability stratification in the model considerably improved the internal
(PSI). tide field.
 Subeesh et al (2020)

The regions of shelf breaks and upper slope around 16–

18.5∘ N and the northern part of the Chagos-Laccadive
The total barotropic to baroclinic Ridge (8–14∘ N) are the two most important regions of
conversion of M2 tidal constituent is internal tide generation along the WCI, which together
about 2.4 GW. contribute to more than 50% of total area-integrated M2
Modelling of barotropic and internal tides along the Indian Coasts

West coast of India Observed and modelled barotropic tidal currents

Subeesh et al (2020)
 Observed barotropic and internal tides on the continental shelf in the
western Bay of Bengal

● ADCP Observations show that currents

in the tidal band contribute about 5-14%
of the total currents on the shelf.

● Dominant part of the tidal variability is

contributed by baroclinic tidal currents
on the shelf-break

% of contribution of barotropic and baroclinic tidal currents

 Role of local and remote generation in the total internal tide field along
the western BoB
1) Generation and propagation of internal tides in the Bay of Bengal
Energy conversion Energy flux
● Conversion rates along the western BoB
are very small.

● Major Sources : Continental slopes in

the head of the bay and AN Ridge

● Two beams from AN Ridge

● Internal tides propagate with a speed of

about 2.5 cm/s and they take about 5-6
days to reach the shelf in the
northwestern BoB.
 Role of local and remote generation in the total internal tide field along
the western BoB
1) Generation and propagation of internal tides in the Bay of Bengal

Animation of internal tide

generation and
propagation in the BoB
 Role of local and remote generation in the total internal tide field along
the western BoB
2) How the onshore transmission of internal tides varies along the western BoB

● There are differences in the internal tide Transmission

activity along the shelf. Reflecton
Transmission

● Topographic slope in the western BoB

determines the strength of internal tide
activity along the shelf
Alongshore variability of internal tides
 Role of local and remote generation in the total internal tide field along
the western BoB
4) Dissipation of internal tides along the western BoB

● Energy dissipation on the slope is about two times

larger than that on the shelf

● Total area integrated M2 dissipation in the western

BoB (10.250 - 200N, 790 - 870E) which is 3 to 4 times
larger than the local conversion (48.2 MW).

● This indicates that continental margins in the

western BoB are sinks for remotely-generated
internal tide energy rather than sources.
 Convergence of internal tides in the northern Bay of Bengal

1) Strong internal tide energy in the deeper parts of the BoB

● Further I looked into the spatial

variability of internal tides using model M2 internal tide energy in the northern BoB
simulation.

● Model estimates of internal tide energy

shows that there is strong internal tide
activity in the central part of the
northern BoB, which about 457 km away
from the generation sites.

● To examine this spatial variability,

internal tide signals from the satellite
altimetry is used.
 Convergence of internal tides in the northern Bay of Bengal

2) Surface amplitude of internal tides from satellite altimeter

● Relatively large SSH signals (2.5 to

3.5 cm) near the AN Ridge and
adjacent to the continental slopes in
the northern BoB.

● Presence of large amplitudes (2-3

cm) of M2 internal tides in the deep
regions of the north-central BoB.

●nModel is able to simulate the

spatial variability of M2 internal tides
in the BoB very well.
 Convergence of internal tides in the northern Bay of Bengal

3) Intensification of internal tides due to convergence of internal tides

● Shape of the continental slopes in this region

can be nearly described by a semi-circle.

● Internal tides radiating from the sources

oriented in circular shape is converging into
their focal region.
● This convergence results in the
intensification of internal tides in the north-
central BoB.

● We found enhanced energy dissipation in the

focal region and such convergence can be
 Energy budget of barotropic and internal tides in the Bay of Bengal

1) Barotropic tides and its energy propagation in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea

● Strong M2 tidal currents with magnitudes Barotropic M2 ellipse

of 50–100 cm s-1 are found over the wide

continental shelves in the eastern AS and
in the northern BoB.

● Strong tidal currents (50-70 cm s-1) are

also found across the AN Ridge.

● Magnitude of M2 tidal currents is

relatively small (less than 10 cm s-1) along
the continental margins of the western
BoB, which is consistent with field
 Energy budget of barotropic and internal tides in the Bay of Bengal

2) Barotropic tides and its energy dissipation in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea

Simplified form of local tidal energy balance over a tidal period can be expressed as

W is the rate of work done by the gravitational force on the ocean and ∇∙Fb is the divergence of the barotropic
energy flux Fb. Work done (W) by the tidal gravitational force can be neglected in the shallow marginal
seas. Therefore, dissipation becomes balanced by divergence of barotropic energy flux.
Tidal energy Dissipation = Frictional dissipation + Internal tide generation

Internal tide Energy balance

Frictional dissipation

Rate of Energy conversion

Internal energy flux
into internal tides
 Energy budget of barotropic and internal tides in the Bay of Bengal

3) Summary of M2 tidal energy budget in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea

● Conversion at eight potential sources

Strong
92.7% (17.71 GW)
Dissipation
● AN Ridge constitutes to about in the
83.8% energy Andaman
Sea
● 94% of energy loss occurs by
internal tides across AN Ridge
 Energy budget of barotropic and internal tides in the Bay of Bengal

4) Spring-neap variability of conversion and flux in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea

● About 60% change in

energy conversion

● Energy conversion
27.0 GW (spring)
11.02 GW (neap)

● Along the AN Ridge,

21.45 GW
(spring)
8.65 GW (neap)
 Energy budget of barotropic and internal tides in the Bay of Bengal

5) Effect of mesoscale circulation on the propagation of internal tides

● The variations in the path of internal

tide propagation due to mesoscale
circulation.

● This causes large intraseasonal

variability in internal tide activity
along the continental margins of the
western BoB.
Summary
Barotropic tides :
Basics
Modelling
Satellite observations
Internal tides
Modelling
Satellite observations
Energy budget
Reference

https://www.education.com/science-fair/article/barycenter-balancing-point/

https://beltoforion.de/en/tides/tidal_cycles.php

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