World Tidal Constituents from the IHO Tidal Constituent Bank

In 1974, the Canadian Hydrographic Service and Marine Environmental Data Service established a computer bank of tidal constituents for the world's oceans on behalf of the International Hydrographic Organization. The IHO Tidal Constituent Bank became fully operational in January 1978, replacing the defunct Special Publication 26. The World Tidal Constituent file at JODC is the second release from 1983.

Use Cases

• Modeling global tidal patterns based on constituent data
• Analyzing sea level variations for coastal engineering based on tidal constituents
• Calibrating regional tidal models using a global reference bank

Strengths

• Data originates from an international collaborative effort led by the Canadian Hydrographic Service
• Bank was established on behalf of the International Hydrographic Organization, suggesting institutional authority
• Replaced a previous standard (Special Publication 26), indicating an updated resource

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download
• Row count and column-level documentation are absent; field semantics must be inferred after download

Provenance

Source

International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) Tidal Constituent Bank, via Canadian Hydrographic Service and Marine Environmental Data Service

Collection Method

Established and operated as a computer bank of tidal constituents

Time Range

Bank operational from 1978; file released in 1983

Freshness

Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified

Geography

World's oceans