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Re: Global oceanic tides
From: Trevor Kenchington
Date: 2003 Aug 28, 09:31 -0300
From: Trevor Kenchington
Date: 2003 Aug 28, 09:31 -0300
Dan asked: > How in the heck do you know all of this? Has your professional work > caused you to need to learn all of this, or are you a physicist that > loves to study this? Tidal phenomena have long intrigued me, though I hadn't bothered with the theory since slogging through it as an undergrad student (Oceanography & Zoology -- I'm no physicist nor mathematician!). Some 18 months ago, I took the Power Squadron's "Piloting" class (CPS version, not USPS) and I knew that whet was said about tidal theory was wrong, though I couldn't remember what was right. So I started re-reading old textbooks, which saw my Squadron volunteer me to trial-teach a new tides module, which caused me to continue reading -- leading to my present point. > I have always wanted to learn more about the tides > but have never found the appropriate book. All seem either too > simplistic > or way over my head. (I'm a math major with a decent amount of physics > under my belt.) > > Do you have any recommendations for further reading for someone with my > level of understanding? There is a good introductory section in the "Reed's Nautical Companion" (US version) which is also available as a PDF file on their web site, which would get anyone started. I have a slim paperback "Ebb and Flow: The Tides of Earth, Air and Water" by Albert Defant, which was originally published in German in 1953. My English edition dates from around 1970, though the translation was first published in 1958, so it would likely be hard to find. That was one textbook back in my student times and explains the phenomena without much recourse to math. There are likely to be other similar books aimed at the fringe between professional oceanographers and serious amateur enthusiasts but I have not gone in search of them. If you have access to Canadian Hydrographic Service publications, they do a small leaflet "Tides in Canadian Waters" which is surprisingly authoritative. They also do a larger manual which is mainly instructions to their staff on how to set up tide gauges and so forth but includes an excellent, almost math-free, explanation of what drives tides -- including the only explanation I have every understood of the 18-year tide. Then there is "Tides: A scientific history" by D.E.Cartwright, published 1999 by Cambridge University Press. That is a study of the history of science but it leads the reader through much of the thinking and so serves as an introduction to what became known. It is my only source for developments in the past 30 years. (Cartwright was a tidal oceanographer himself before retirement.) However, as a math major, you might have more success with the "Admiralty Manual of Tides" than I have had. (I thought that mine was an update of circa 1970 but, on checking, I see that it is simply a 1973 reprint of the 1941 text.) Somebody posted, a few days back, a note that implied that the Manual is no longer available from Admiralty chart agents. However, it ought to be available in major academic libraries. That is about all I can personally recommend, though there should be much else available if anyone can find it. 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