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Trevor,

Tidal levels may be calculated, but have satisfactory descriptions of
currents been acheived?  I believe George Huxtable was including both
in his description.

Fred Hebard

On Friday, Aug 15, 2003, at 21:49 US/Eastern, Trevor J. Kenchington
wrote:

> George Huxtable wrote, after much snipping:
>
>> Because of the inertia of the immense water-masses involved, together
>> with
>> the obstruction caused by the continents (which restrict free flow
>> from one
>> ocean basin to another) the ocean surface can't, anywhere near,
>> respond to
>> these forces in the necessary time. Instead, the water swirls and
>> surges
>> around the ocean basins, in a pattern that's so complex that it defies
>> calculation.
>
>
> While computationally daunting, in the last ten years, cotidal charts
> for the world ocean have been calculated from the astronomic tide
> generating forces and the shapes of the ocean basins -- charts that
> seem
> to match quite well with empirical observations.
>
> Back when I was an oceanography student (nearly 30 years now) it was
> quite impossible. The first realistic tidal model I encountered (for
> part of the Tasman Sea) dated from the mid-1980s. By the mid- to
> late-1990s, it was possible to do the whole ocean.
>
>
> Trevor Kenchington
>
>
> --
> Trevor J. Kenchington PhD                         Gadus@iStar.ca
> Gadus Associates,                                 Office(902) 889-9250
> R.R.#1, Musquodoboit Harbour,                     Fax   (902) 889-9251
> Nova Scotia  B0J 2L0, CANADA                      Home  (902) 889-3555
>
>                     Science Serving the Fisheries
>                      http://home.istar.ca/~gadus
>
>

   

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