FES 2012: A New Global Tidal Model Taking Advantage of Nearly 20 Years of Altimetry

The accuracy of tidal models has been much improved during the last 20 years. Still, significant errors remain mainly in shelf seas and in polar regions. A new global tidal model FES2012 has been developed taking advantage of longer altimeter time series, improved modelling and data assimilation techniques, and more accurate ocean bathymetry. Special efforts have been dedicated to the determination of accurate tidal currents and to address the major non-linear tides issue. We detail the most significant advances in the dynamic modelling, data analysis and assimilation. Finally we present the main improvements achieved compared to former releases of the FES model and the available modern global ocean tide models.