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The Tides of the Red Sea

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Oceanographic and Biological Aspects of the Red Sea

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Abstract

This paper describes the present tidal regime in the Red Sea. Both the diurnal and the semidiurnal tidal amplitudes are small because of the constricted connection to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, at the Bab el Mandeb Strait. Semidiurnal tides have a classic half-wave pattern, with a central amphidrome, zero tidal range, between Jeddah and Port Sudan. We present a high resolution numerical model output of several tidal constituents, and also model the amphidrome position in terms of ingoing and outgoing tidal Kelvin waves. We quantify the energy budgets for fluxes and dissipation.

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Acknowledgements

Several colleagues have helped substantially in this work, particularly in the collection of data, sometimes in difficult locations. Elfatih Bakry, Ahmed Eltaib, and the Institute of Marine Research, Red Sea University, Port Sudan, managed the measurements in the Sudan, often in environmentally difficult conditions. The KAUST sea level and current observations were curated by Mohammedali Nellayaputhenpeedika. The excellent strategic series of sea level measurements along the Saudi Arabian coast were made available, courtesy of the President of the Saudi General Commission for Survey. Within the GCS, it is a pleasure to acknowledge several valuable discussions on Red Sea tides with inter alia, Mohammed Al Harbi, Dr. N. T. Manoj, and Salem Salman Salem Al-Ghzwani. In addition, the work has been encouraged and advised by Dr. Dirar Nasr, Dr. Ian Vassie and Dr. Philip Woodworth. We are grateful to Dr. Mattias Green for help with the section on altimetry data and Fig. 2.4, and for suggestions on the importance of internal tidal energy dissipation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Oceanography Centre, Joseph Proudman Building, 6 Brownlow Street, Liverpool, L3 5DA, UK

    David T. Pugh

  2. Red Sea Science and Engineering Research Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

    Yasser Abualnaja

  3. Naval Research Laboratory, Oceanography Division Stennis Space Center, Stennis Space Center, MS, 39529, USA

    Ewa Jarosz

Authors
  1. David T. Pugh
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  2. Yasser Abualnaja
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  3. Ewa Jarosz
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to David T. Pugh .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Marine Geology, Saudi Geological Survey, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

    Najeeb M.A. Rasul

  2. Stewart Geophysical Consultants Pty. Ltd., College Park, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Ian C.F. Stewart

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Pugh, D.T., Abualnaja, Y., Jarosz, E. (2019). The Tides of the Red Sea. In: Rasul, N., Stewart, I. (eds) Oceanographic and Biological Aspects of the Red Sea. Springer Oceanography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99417-8_2

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