On charting global ocean tides

This review article highlights the three‐century development of our scientific understanding of ocean tides, culminating through myths, paradoxes, and controversies in a global tide model that now permits the prediction of the instantaneous total tide anywhere in the open oceans with an accuracy of better than 10 cm. All major aspects of tidal research, including empirical, mathematical, and empirical‐mathematical methods, are considered. Particular attention is drawn to the most recently developed computerized techniques comprehending hydrodynamical dissipation and secondary tide‐generating forces, finite‐differencing schemes, geometric boundary and bathymetry modeling, and hydrodynamical interpolation of properly selected empirical tide data. Numerous computer experiments are mentioned that were carried out by various researchers in order to evaluate the magnitudes of the featured effects. Further possible improvements are mentioned, especially in nearshore areas, in the Arctic Sea, and near Antarctica, where empirical tide and bathymetry data are either rough or marginal.