Modeling Tidal Datums and Spatially Varying Uncertainty in the Texas and Western Louisiana Coastal Waters

Abstract

Tidal datums are key components in NOAA’s Vertical Datum transformation project (VDatum), which enables effective vertical transformation of the water level between tidal, orthometric, and ellipsoid -based three-dimensional reference systems. An initial application of modeling tidal datums was developed for the coastal waters of Texas and western Louisiana in 2013. The goals of the current work include: (1) updating the tidal model by using the best available shoreline, bathymetry, and tide station data; (2) implementing a recently developed statistical interpolation method for interpolating modeled tidal datums and computing tidal datum uncertainties; and (3) using modeled tidal datums to upgrade non-tidal polygons for enhancing the quality of the VDatum marine grid population. The updated tidal model outperformed the previous tidal model in most cases. The statistical interpolation method is able to limit the interpolated tidal datums to within a user-defined model error (0.01 m in this work) and produce a spatially varying uncertainty field for each interpolated tidal datum field. The upgraded non-tidal polygons enhanced the quality of the VDatum marine grid population. This paper will introduce the detailed procedures of this modeling work, present and discuss the obtained results, share the effective methods used for improving model performance and lessons learned in the model assessments, and analyze the improvement of the current tidal model in comparison with the previous tidal model.