Using the NOAA Tidal Analysis Datums Calculator

Introduction

The NOAA Tidal Analysis Datum Calculator (aka TAD) reads a time series of water level data and calculates several tidal datums.The first three sections of this lesson address how TAD works, including data requirements, calculation methods, and output files. This followed by an opportunity to practice using TAD to compute tidal datums and analyze the output.    

Objectives

After completing the lesson, you will be able to do the following:

• Describe what the NOAA tidal analysis datums calculator (TAD) does and how it does it
  • Describe the data format read by TAD
  • Describe the data requirements (minimum length of record, data gaps)
  • Describe the processes TAD uses to compute datums
  • Describe how TAD determines which process to utilize
• Describe the output files computed by TAD
  • List the output files
  • Describe the contents of the SDC.out file
• Given a properly formatted dataset, determine tidal datums using TAD.