DYNAMICS AND ENERGETICS OF THE M2 SURFACE AND INTERNAL TIDES IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN: SOME MODEL RESULTS - Energy Research Developments: Tidal Energy, Energy Efficiency and Solar Energy - page 83

Figure 2. Chart of isoamplitude (cm) for the M2 wave in the Arctic Ocean.

This comparison shows that the root mean square absolute and relative errors
( (

)

and (

∑

)

∑

, respectively) amount to 5.9 cm and 31.8 %. Here,

D / N D / AN

n n n

n

n

[ ] 1/2

( )

D = 2

1/2

A

2
on

+ A

2
mn

− 2A A cos φ − φ is the rms (over a tidal cycle) error;

n on mn on mn

, and are observed and model values of the amplitude and the phase at the
n-th site; N is the number of these sites (in our case, it is 119). As can be seen, the errors are
better than those (9.6 cm and 43.7 %) derived from the Fairbanks University model [Kowalik
and Proshutinsky, 1991] and worse than those (3.4 cm and 24.7 %) derived from Oregon
State University model [Padman and Erofeeva, 2004]. This fact is not surprising: the Oregon
State University model assimilates all available empirical information, including the
TOPEX/POSEIDON and ERS satellite altimetric data, and uses the same (assimilated) data
for comparing them with model results.

A φ A φ

on on mn , mn