Barotropic tides in the global oceans from a nonlinear tidal model assimilating altimetric tides: 2. Altimetric and geophysical implications

Abstract

In this second part, we explore the implications of the tides derived from the high‐resolution, data‐assimilative, nonlinear barotropic global ocean tidal model described by Kantha (this issue) in altimetric analysis and geophysical applications. It is shown that when applied to the task of removing tidal sea surface height from TOPEX altimetric records, the model performance is comparable to other global tidal models in the open ocean as measured by the reduction in crossover variances. The performance is slightly better than that of the only other high‐resolution global tidal model from Grenoble (Le Provost et al., 1994). The results are however mixed in regions shallower than 1000 m and in semienclosed seas such as the Bering Sea, with the model performance slightly worse overall than the Grenoble model. Computations of total power input (and hence total tidal dissipation rate) are shown to be in excellent agreement with recent analyses of TOPEX data and geophysical observations. In addition, distributions of the tidal power input, tidal dissipation, and the power fluxes in the global oceans are shown for the two primary constituents, M2 and K1. Load tides in solid Earth due to ocean tidal loading fluctuations are also computed for the major semidiurnal and diurnal constituents. The load tides are shown to be large in the shallow seas adjacent to the coasts with high tides such as the Patagonian shelf, because of the higher resolution of this global tide model. This has potential implications in geophysical applications.