An oceanic basin oscillation-driving mechanism for tides

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel oceanic basin oscillation-driven mechanism for tides, challenging the traditional gravitational forcing theory, and demonstrates its effectiveness with a simple algebraic model tested against 11-year observational data.

Contribution

It proposes a new tide explanation based on ocean basin oscillations linked to Earth's rotation, with an algebraic model validated against long-term observations.

Findings

The new model predicts tidal elevations with an RMS deviation of 7.54 cm.

Compared to hydrodynamic models, the new theory offers a potentially more accurate explanation of tides.

Hydrodynamic models have RMS tidal elevation errors ranging from 38.56 to 86.92 cm.

Abstract

Tides represent the daily alternations of high and low waters along coastlines and in oceans, and the current theory (termed the gravitational forcing mechanism) explains them as a manifestation of the response of ocean water to the Moon's (Sun's) gravitational force. However, although the purely hydrodynamic models representing the current theory have been widely tested over global ocean,their tidal elevation accuracies are generally low. This implies an uncertainty as to whether the gravitational forcing mechanism is the best explanation for tides. In this study, we present a new theory (termed the oceanic basin oscillation-driving mechanism), in which tides are explained as a manifestation of oscillating ocean basin that is intricately linked to the elongated spinning solid Earth due to the Moon (Sun). Based on this new theory, we develop an algebraic tide model and test it using 11-year observations from 33 bottom pressure stations over the Pacific Ocean, the average Root Mean Square (RMS) deviation of tidal elevation predicted by this model against observation is 7.54 cm. Using a ratio of M2 elevation RMS of ocean tide model EOT11a and its total tidal elevation RMS as a reference, we estimate the total tidal elevation RMS of six purely hydrodynamic models (i.e.,Hallberg Isopycnal Model, OSU Tidal Inversion software-GN ,STORMTIDE model, OSU Tidal Inversion Software-ERB,STM-1B, and HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model to be 59.93, 51.64, 57.05, 38.56, 86.92, and 53.56 cm, respectively.