Testing the physical reality of tidal bulges in the world's oceans

Abstract

Persistent alternation of high and low water in coastal and oceanic regions has attracted human attention for millennia. This movement of water is generally explained through the double water bulge model. Although this model has been widely adopted in the scientific literature on tides since the 18th century, the physical existence of water bulges on the Earth's surface has yet to be verified. Herein, we establish a lunar angle phase-dependent statistical analysis of tide patterns at 362,370 oceanic locations spotted by Jason-3 satellite of AVISO in 2021 to address this issue. We show that during lunar angle phases of 0 degree-45 degree and 135 degree-180 degree, which spatially correspond to the water bulging regions expected in the double water bulge model, the number of low tides consistently exceeds that of high tides. Conversely, during lunar angle phase of 45 degree-135 degree, which spatially correspond to the water-depressing region expected in the model, high tides predominantly outnumber low tides. These findings evidently contradict the physical existence of two water bulges in the world's oceans, suggesting that the scientific community should pay additional attention to alternative explanations for tides, such as gravitational forcing mechanism and oceanic basin oscillation-generated driving mechanism.