A tide gauge record may start, but not end, about low ENSO waters
The case of Aden, discussed in Parker & Ollier (2017) and Parker & O’Sullivan (2018), is only one of the many where the data proposed by the PSMSL are not trustworthy. Another examples has been recently added to the long list, Funafuti, in Tuvalu (Parker, 2018).
For the historical tide gauge of Funafuti, in Tuvalu, www.psmsl.org/data/obtaining/stations/1452.php, the PSMSL data also include results from the other tide gauge of Funafuti B, www.psmsl.org/data/obtaining/stations/1839.php.
The PSMSL page for the Funafuti tide gauge, that was last updated 17 October 2002, reports of data up to December 2001. The data Authority shown is the Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology National Tidal Centre (BOM/NTC). According to PSMSL, the data for this tide gauge were provided by the University of Hawaii (UH) until December 1999, and then by the BOM/NTC. However, the BOM/NTC has not provided any data for this tide gauge, while it has provided all the data since 1993 for the still operational Funafuti B tide gauge. The two additional years of data were first used by Hunter in 2002 in a non-peer reviewed communication www.johnroberthunter.org/science/home_prof/reports/tuvalu.pdf where it is clearly written:
“Tide gauge records for Funafuti are available since 1977, based mainly on an installation run by the University of Hawaii. In 1993 a modern Aquatrak acoustic gauge was installed at a nearby site by the Australian National Tidal Facility (NTF) as part of the AusAID-sponsored South Pacific Sea Level and Climate Monitoring Project. Two records have been considered here; they are denoted records ‘A’ and ‘B’. Record A
consists of annual averages of the ‘historic’ record, which is based on a number of different tide gauges, and which has been provided by the University of Hawaii Sea Level Center (UHSLC). Record B consists of annual averages of data collected by the NTF from their acoustic gauge since 1993. The part of Record A prior to 2000 was derived from the University of Hawaii gauge, while the remainder is from the NTF gauge. This
latter part of Record A is essentially identical to Record B (except for round-off errors and differences in the height reference datum)”.
The two years of additional data were never used by the BOM/NTC, that for example in the 2006 report
www.bom.gov.au/ntc/IDO60033/IDO60033.2006.pdf only use for Funafuti the data up to December 1999 provided by the UH.
The previously mentioned work by Hunter of 2002 is cited in a work co-authored by PSMSL researchers (Church, Woodworth, Aarup, & Wilson, 2010).
Figure 1 is an analysis of the Funafuti data without and with the two additional years of data from another tide gauge. As the record is short, and it includes the extremely low water levels of the 1998 ENSO event, the effect of the two additional years of data is large. The image is from Parker (2018), that recently discussed the sea levels of Tuvalu.
While it is certainly wrong to infer trends from short records, either the Funafuti tide gauge record, with the low water levels at the end, or the Funafuti B tide gauge record, with the low water levels at the start, data from another tide gauge should not be arbitrarily added to one tide gauge record following a not even peer review work such as www.johnroberthunter.org/science/home_prof/reports/tuvalu.pdf.
The two additional years of data were used to discredit the work by Daly, www.john-daly.com/press/press-01b.htm#tuvalu of 2001, and
www.john-daly.com/press/press-02a.htm#funafuti of 2002, additionally to a 2002 BOM/NTC work, this latter of title “Sea Level in Tuvalu: It’s Present State” now missing from the BOM web site correctly stating than in the measurements collected in the Funafuti tide gauge there was no sign of sea level rise.
a
b
Figure 1 – Analysis of the Funafuti tide gauge record. (a) data to December 1999. The rate is small positive. (c) data to December 2001. The rate is much larger positive, but the additional data are from another tide gauge. The data is from www.psmsl.org, the image is from Parker (2018).
If a tide gauge record ends close to the time of a low ENSO water level, it does not seem appropriate to add additional data to prevent claims that this tide gauge was not suggesting a sea level rise.
References
- Parker, A. & Ollier, C.D. (2017). Is the Sea Level Stable at Aden, Yemen?, Earth Systems and Environment, 1(2), p.18.
- Parker, A. & O’Sullivan, J., (2018), The Need of an Open, Fair Peer Review of Sea Levels Data, accepted paper, in press.
- Church, J., Woodworth, P., Aarup, T. & Wilson, S.W., (2010). Understanding Sea-level Rise and Variability, John Wiley & Sons, 454 pages.
- Parker, A., (2018), TUVALU SEA LEVEL RISE, LAND CHANGE, MISMANAGEMENT AND OVERPOPULATION, New Concepts in Global Tectonics Journal, 6(1):107-123.
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