The OSU TOPEX/Poseidon

Global Inverse Solution

TPXO

TPXO*.* is a current version of a global model of ocean tides, which best-fits, in a least-squares sense, the Laplace Tidal Equations and along track averaged data from TOPEX/Poseidon and Jason (on TOPEX/POSEIDON tracks since 2002) obtained with OTIS. The methods used to compute the model are described in details by Egbert, Bennett, and Foreman [EBF, 1994] and further by Egbert and Erofeeva in [Efficient inverse modeling of barotropic ocean tides , Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, vol.19,N2, February 2002].

The tides are provided as complex amplitudes of earth-relative sea-surface elevation for eight primary (M2, S2, N2, K2, K1, O1, P1, Q1) and two long period (Mf,Mm) harmonic constituents, on a 1440x721, 1/4 degree resolution full global grid (for versions 6.* and later).

Each latest version of the TPXO model is of better quality compared to the earlier versions, since:

·        it assimilates longer satellite time series;

·        more data sites are included into assimilation;

·        bathymetry is improving from version to version;

·        resolution of global and local grids is improving from version to version.

To extract tidal harmonic constants and/or predict tide using TPXO*.* GLOBAL tidal solution you MUST first download OTPS (OSU Tidal Prediction Software). OTPS is written in Fortran 90 and tested under UNIX/Linux. The compressed and tarred OTPS package contains README file with details on tidal solution installation and OTPS usage. There also exist a MATLAB toolbox, called TMD, functionally the same as OTPS. The TMD toolbox also includes a graphical user interface, easy to use and available for download at   http://www.esr.org/polar_tide_models/Model_AOTIM5.html

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