Details:

Personal Author:
Earwaker, Karen L. ; Nichols, C. Reid. ; Ehret, William T.
Earwaker, Karen L. ; Nichols, C. Reid. ; Ehret, William T. Less -
Corporate Authors:
United States. National Ocean Service. Office of Ocean and Earth Science.
NOAA Program & Office:
NOS (National Ocean Service)
Description:
"Improved tidal current predictions in Galveston Bay, Texas, are essential to enhancing the safety level for deep draft vessels navigating the main ship channels. The National Ocean Service (NOS) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) conducted a quality assurance study to assess the adequacy of current predictions at Houston Ship Channel and Galveston Bay Entrance during late summer and autumn, 1988. Measurements at two critical locations were made using acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs) to obtain high quality data for comparison with the NOAA Tables. Results indicated that NOAA's existing tidal current information was outside established NOS working standards (Wilmot and Williams, 1987) and prompted a notice to mariners regarding caution in use of the NOAA tables. New predictions derived from harmonic analysis of the ADCP data show improvement over 1935 predictions. Descriptive statistics of differences between observed and predicted currents identify measurable improvement from a mean of 0.26 knots and a standard deviation of 0.54 knots for the 1935-based predictions to an average of 0.00 knots and standard deviation of 0.40 knots for the 1988-based predictions. Predictions for Galveston Bay Entrance (the reference station) based on averaged 29-day harmonic analyses from August through October, 1988, will appear in NOAA's Tidal Current Tables 1996-Atlantic Coast of North America and ensuing years. NOS recognizes that longer data sets should be employed to improve the quality ofthe predictions and that real-time systems should be installed in coastal areas for reporting wind, water level, and currents."
Keywords:
[+]
Forecasting Observations Ocean Circulation Tidal Currents
Series:
NOAA technical memorandum NOS/OES ; 014
Document Type:
Technical Memorandum
Place as Subject:
Galveston Bay (Tex.)
Rights Information:
Public Domain
Compliance:
Library
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:6512c762e01e830aa8fc30d3826568349e82600af5e0b5adfccc166308be82cc
Download URL:
https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/30424/noaa_30424_DS1.pdf
File Type:

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