Applications of the Mild-Slope Equation to Tidal Computations in the Taiwan Strait

Employing harmonic analysis of tidal data in the Taiwan Strait, the cross-strait tidal characteristics are completely illustrated. Based on the two dimensional mild-slope equation which can be reduced to the shallow-water wave equation, a finite element model (Tsay et al., 1989) is applied to investigate the characteristics of tides in the Taiwan Strait. The co-range and equi-phase charts of major tidal constituents, such as M₂, S₂, N₂, and K₁, are reproduced. Anomalous amplification of semidiurnal tides in the Taiwan Strait is verified. With rotation effects neglected and by applying a non-reflective condition on the open boundaries, the numerical results of phase-lag and co-range distributions show very good agreement with observed data for semidiurnal tides in the Taiwan Strait. Due to crude representation of the topography at two ends along the China coast, computed tidal distributions deviate from the observations. However, both computed amplitudes and phase-lags compare very well with observed data along the central half of the China coast.