Assessment of Tide Gauge Biases and Precision by the Combination of Multiple Collocated Time Series

• Published in: Journal of atmospheric and oceanic technology Vol. 36; no. 10; pp. 1983 - 1996
• Main Authors: Gobron, Kevin, de Viron, Olivier, Wöppelmann, Guy, Poirier, Étienne, Ballu, Valérie, Van Camp, Michel
• Format: Journal Article Web Resource
• Language: English
• Published: Boston American Meteorological Society 01.10.2019
• Subjects: Accuracy; Bias; Calibration; Earth sciences & physical geography; Electric contacts; Experiments; Gauges; Ice; Lasers; Ocean, Atmosphere; Physical, chemical, mathematical & earth Sciences; Physique, chimie, mathématiques & sciences de la terre; Sciences de la terre & géographie physique; Sciences of the Universe; Sea level; Tide gauge; Tide gauges; Tides; Time series; Uncertainty
• ISSN: 0739-0572; 1520-0426; 1520-0426
• DOI: 10.1175/JTECH-D-18-0235.1

Abstract This study proposes a method for the cross calibration of tide gauges. Based on the combination of at least three collocated sea level time series, it takes advantage of the least squares variance component estimation (LS-VCE) method to assess both sea level biases and uncertainties in real conditions. The method was applied to a multi-instrument experiment carried out on Aix Island, France, in 2016. Six tide gauges were deployed to carry out simultaneous sea level recordings for 11 h. The best results were obtained with an electrical contact probe, which reaches a 3-mm uncertainty. The method allows us to assess both the biases and the precision—that is, the full accuracy—for each instrument. The results obtained with the proposed combination method have been compared to that of a buddy-checking method. It showed that the combination of all the time series also provides more precise bias estimates.