Hydrodynamics and Sea level rise

• http://www.eurosion.org/

Source data have been severely checked and corrected with observation of tide gauges. Double control on the quality of the produced database is currently ensured on wind and wave climate as well as tidal range. The overall accuracy of tidal range estimates lies between 10 and 15%. Residual Mean Square Error (RMSE) of wave height estimates does not exceed 15%, though the RMSE of wind speed does not exceed 20%.

EUROSION was a project commissioned by the General Directorate Environment of the European Commission 2002-2004.

1) Wave and wind climate: Data were entirely generated from the EUROSION project. The parameters listed above were statistically processed from the database waveclimate.com distributed by the dutch company ARGOSS. waveclimate.com database contains up to 17 years of wind- and wave data (1985-2001). Observations of wave height and wind speed come from altimeters carried by ERS-1, ERS-2, Topex/Poseidon and Geosat satellites. The scatterometer sensors onboard ERS-1 and ERS-2 supplied the wind speed and wind direction data. Wave spectral parameters were derived from spectra of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagettes collected by ERS-1 and ERS-2 using an algorithm developed by ARGOSS [Mastenbroek and de Valk, 2000]. Production of statistical estimate for the parameters listed above were carried out over boxes of 200kmx200km. Each box overlaps with the adjacent boxes with an approximative 50% rate, and results are attached to the box centre (see screenshot above). As a consequence, data are provided with a 100km resolution along the European coast.

2) Data on tidal range at the 237 locations are extrapolated from the database "tidal-info.com" distributed by ARGOSS. This database contains tidal harmonics for the eight most important components, i.e. M2, S2, N2, K2, K1, O1, P1 and Q1. The harmonics were computed by assimilating eight years of radar altimeter orbit height measurements and tide gauge measurements from approximately 7300 coastal stations into a shallow-water tidal model. The satellite measurements give a good overview of the tidal patterns on deep water, whereas the stations give accurate information for certain locations close to the shoreline. The combination of the two, assimilated in a tidal model, provides good information in shallow coastal seas where tidal effects are most prominent.

3) Relative sea level rise (RSLR) at the 237 locations are extrapolated from the digitization of two maps, namely : - the map by [Douglas et al., 2001] which provides an estimate of RSLR for the whole of Europe - the map by [Lambeck et al., 1997] which covers a smaller area in more detail, i.e. the North Sea.