Distilling information from patchy tide gauge records: The New Zealand experience

Historical tide gauge records provide a source of data for the analysis of sea level variations, but in New Zealand the data are generally of low quality. Techniques have been developed for handling these low‐quality data and extracting as much information as possible about the distribution of the energy in the sea level signal. These involve interpolating between measurements of high and low tide, filling gaps in the record, and filtering. Priority must be given to establishing a series of open‐coast tide gauges, given the paucity of such data in New Zealand and its strategic location in the mid‐latitude of the South Pacific, where few land masses occur.

Keywords:

• tide
• tide gauge
• sea level