Ocean tides near Hawaii from satellite altimeter data. Part I

Abstract

Sufficient and accurate tide data are essential for analyzing physical processes in the ocean. A method is developed to spatially fit the tidal amplitude and phase lag data along satellite altimeter tracks near Hawaii and construct reliable cotidal charts by using the Chebyshev polynomials. The method is completely dependent on satellite altimeter data. By using the cross-validation method, the optimal orders of Chebyshev polynomials are determined and the polynomial coefficients are calculated by the least squares method. The tidal amplitudes and phase lags obtained by the method are compared with those from the Finite Element Solutions 2014 (FES2014), National Astronomical Observatory 99b (NAO.99b), and TPXO9 models. Results indicate that the method yields accurate results as its fitting results are consistent with the harmonic constants of the three models. The feasibility of this method is also validated by the harmonic constants from tidal gauges near Hawaii.