Tide-generating Forces

(NOAA/NOS Education: Tides and Water Levels)

• Tides are the hydrodynamic response of the oceans to tide- generating forces

A simple picture:

• On a water-covered, non-rapidly rotating world, two bulges would exist.

• The sun and moon exert a gravitational attractive force, creating a bulge on the near side of the earth.

• The combined orbits of the Earth-Moon and Earth-Sun around their center of gravity produce centrifugal force, creating a bulge on the far side of the earth.

• Maximum tidal forces occur once every 1600 years!

Sources

Author: E. Boyce

Created: 7 December, 2003

Web project for PHYS645, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, University of Alaska Fairbanks