Gobron, K. ; de Viron, O. ; Wöppelmann, G. ; Poirier, E. ; Ballu, V. ; Van Camp, M.

published in Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology (2019)

Abstract: This study proposes a method for the cross-calibration of tide gauges. Based on the combination of at least three co-located sea level time series, it takes advantage of the Least-Squares Variance Component Estimation 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 hours. The best results were obtained with an electrical contact probe, which reaches a 3-millimeter uncertainty. The method allows assessing both the biases and the precision – i.e., 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 time series also provides more precise bias estimates.

Keyword(s): Cross-calibration of tide gauges ; Aix island (France) ; Least-Squares Variance Component Estimation method ; Sea-level biases and uncertaintie
DOI: 10.1175/JTECH-D-18-0235.1
Links: link
Funding: U. La Rochelle and DGA-France/U. La Rochelle and DGA-France/U. La Rochelle and DGA-France