NOAA Technical Memorandum NOS CS 31 VDATUM FOR THE GULF OF MAINE: TIDAL DATUMS AND THE TOPOGRAPHY OF THE SEA SURFACE Silver Spring, Maryland May 2013 noaa National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE National Ocean Service Coast Survey Development Laboratory Office of Coast Survey National Ocean Service National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration U.S. Department of Commerce The Office of Coast Survey (OCS) is the Nation’s only official chartmaker. As the oldest United States scientific organization, dating from 1807, this office has a long history. Today it promotes safe navigation by managing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) nautical chart and oceanographic data collection and information programs. There are four components of OCS: The Coast Survey Development Laboratory develops new and efficient techniques to accomplish Coast Survey missions and to produce new and improved products and services for the maritime community and other coastal users. The Marine Chart Division acquires marine navigational data to construct and maintain nautical charts, Coast Pilots, and related marine products for the United States. The Hydrographic Surveys Division directs programs for ship and shore- based hydrographic survey units and conducts general hydrographic survey operations. The Navigational Services Division is the focal point for Coast Survey customer service activities, concentrating predominately on charting issues, fast-response hydrographic surveys, and Coast Pilot updates. NOAA Technical Memorandum NOS CS 31 VDATUM FOR THE GULF OF MAINE: TIDAL DATUMS AND THE TOPOGRAPHY OF THE SEA SURFACE Zizang Yang and Edward P. Myers Office of Coast Survey, Coast Survey Development Laboratory Silver Spring, Maryland Inseong Jeong and Stephen A. White National Geodetic Survey, Remote Sensing Division Silver Spring, Maryland May 2013 noaa National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration U. S. DEPARTMENT National Oceanic and National Ocean Service OF COMMERCE Atmospheric Administration Dr. Holly A. Bamford, Rebecca M. Blank, Dr. Kathryn D. Sullivan, Assistant Administrator Acting Secretary Acting Under Secretary Office of Coast Survey Coast Survey Development Laboratory Rear Admiral Gerd F. Glang Mary C. Erickson NOTICE Mention of a commercial company or product does not constitute an endorsement by NOAA. Use for publicity or advertising purposes of information from this publication concerning proprietary products or the tests of such products is not authorized. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES ...............................................................................................................v ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... vii 1. INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................1 2. COASTLINE, BATHYMETRY, AND TIDAL DATUM OBSERVATIONS ...............3 2.1. Digital Coastline ...............................................................................................3 2.2. Bathymetric Data ..............................................................................................3 2.3. Tidal Datum Data ..............................................................................................8 3. TIDAL DATUM SIMILATION ......................................................................................9 3.1. Hydrodynamic Model .......................................................................................9 3.2. Model Grid ........................................................................................................9 3.3. Bathymetry of Model Grid ..............................................................................14 3.4. Model Parameter Setup ...................................................................................16 3.5. Tidal Datum Computation and Results ...........................................................17 3.6. Verifications and Error Corrections ................................................................19 4. CREATION AND POPULATION OF THE MARINE GRID .....................................29 4.1. Creation of VDatum Marine Grid ...................................................................29 4.2. Population of VDatum Grid with Tidal Datums .............................................30 5. TOPOGRAPHY OF THE SEA SURFACE ..................................................................33 6. SUMMARY ...................................................................................................................37 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................37 REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................38 APPENDIX A. HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL ACCURACY STANDARDS FOR NOAA BATHYMETRY SURVEY ...............................................43 APPENDIX B. WATER LEVEL STATION DATA ........................................................45 APPENDIX C. Creation and Validation of the TSS field .................................................49 iii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Map of the Gulf of Maine and adjacent waters. The MHW coastline is represented as a combination of Extracted Vector Shoreline (black lines) and World Vector Shoreline (blue lines). Green line denotes a distance 25-nautical miles offshore. ....................................................................................2 Figure 2. Locations of NOS soundings (red points). Two dotted blue lines represent the open ocean boundary of the hydrodynamic model grid.. ................................4 Figure 3. Locations of ENC bathymetric data (red points). Two dotted blue lines represent the open ocean boundary of the hydrodynamic model grid ..................5 Figure 4. Locations of bathymetric data obtained from Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Canada (red points). Two dotted blue lines represent the open ocean boundary of the hydrodynamic model grid. .......................................6 Figure 5. Locations of the subset of ETOPO2v2 data used in the present study (red points). Two dotted blue lines represent the open ocean boundary of the hydrodynamic model grid .....................................................................................7 Figure 6. Finite element grid for the entire model domain. Two red lines denote the model’s ocean boundaries in eastern LIS and the open ocean ............................10 Figure 7. Close-up views of the model grid in (a) Buzzards Bay, Nantucket Sound, and Cape Cod Bay area, (b) Massachusetts Bay and the southern Maine Coast, and (c) the northern Maine Coast. ..........................................................11 Figure 8. Model grid bathymetry relative to MSL, (a) bathymetries between [0, 500] m; those beyond 500 m are denoted in the same scale as the 500-m bathymetry; (b) bathymetries between [500, 4800] m; those less than 500 m are denoted in the same scale as the 500-m bathymetry. Color bar units are meters ...................................................................................15 Figure 9. Spatially varying bottom friction coefficients (Cf) used for model -3 simulations. Relatively large values of Cf ~910 were specified in the northeastern Muscongus Bay (black square) area. .............................................16 Figure 10. Model-derived tidal datum fields, (a) MHHW, (b) MHW, (c) MLW, and (d) MLLW over the whole model domain. ......................................................18 Figure 11. Comparisons of the modeled (a) MHHW, (b) MHW, (c) MLW, and (d) MLLW against observations. .....................................................................19 Figure 12. Mean magnitude of model-data differences averaged over MHHW, MHW, MLW and MLLW... .........................................................................................20 iv Figure 13. Close-up views of model-data differences (Figure 12) in three areas, (a) eastern LIS and Narragansett Bay, (b) Cape Cod Bay and Boston Harbor, and (c) the Maine coast ....................................................................................21 Figure 14. Bounding polygons for two VDatum domains: (1) LIS-NYB (blue line) and (2) GOM (red line). Transect AB denote locations where tidal datum agreement is being examined (Section 3.6.2). The green line illustrates locations 25-nautical miles offshore. The thick and thin dark lines represent, respectively, the U.S. border and the ADCIRC tidal model domain boundaries (Section 3.2). ....................................................................24 Figure 15. TCARI interpolated error fields for (a) MHHW, (b) MHW, (c) MLW, and (d) MLLW .................................................................................................26 Figure 16. Error-corrected tidal datum fields over the entire model domain, (a) MHHW, (b) MHW, (c) MLW, and (d) MLLW .........................................27 Figure 17. Tidal datums on the VDatum grid, (a) MHHW, (b) MHW, (c) MLW, (d) MLLW, (e) MTL, and (f) DTL. .................................................................31 Figure 18. Location of tide stations used to compute the Gulf of Maine VDatum TSS grid ..................................................................................................................34