Other Long Records not in the PSMSL Data Set

There are several long sea level records discussed in the literature which are historically important, but which are not included in the PSMSL data set. This is either because the data are not available in both the monthly and annual mean format used by the PSMSL, or because they are not true MSL or even MTL as such (based perhaps on irregular observations of high and low waters rather than on continuous observations by a 'tide gauge' or 'tide pole' as now understood). Some examples are given below.

Amsterdam

Historical annual mean values for Amsterdam for 1700-1925 were described in the 1945 paper of J.van Veen 'Bestaat er een geologische bodemdaling te Amsterdam sedert 1700?', Tijdschrift Koninklijk Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig Genootschap, 2e reeks, deel LXII.

Modified values are described in Section 3 of the PSMSL 'Ancillary Time Series of Mean Sea Level Measurements' report from 1988 and can be found in a more convenient format in the file amsterdam.sea.level in this directory.

Stockholm

Historical annual mean values from Stockholm can be taken from the research of Martin Ekman.

Earlier studies include "The world's longest continuous series of sea level observations" (Pure Appl. Geophys., 127, 73-77, 1988) and values for 1774-1984 from that paper can be found in ekman.1988.

However, more recent studies have updated and replaced those values, and the later ones can be found under Martin Ekman in the PSMSL Author Archive.

Kronstadt

Historical values from Kronstadt for 1773-1993 have been published in the report:

Bogdanov, V.I., Medvedev, M.Yu., Solodov, V.A., Trapeznikov, Yu., A., Troshkov, G.A. and Trubitsina, A.A. 2000. Mean monthly series of sea level observations (1777-1993) at the Kronstadt gauge. Reports of the Finnish Geodetic Institute, 2000:1, 34pp.

This report is contained in this directory as a pdf file with the permission of the Finnish Geodetic Institute. Appendix 1 and 2 of the report, which contain the data values, are included in a Word file , also with the permission of the Finnish Geodetic Institute.

Liverpool

Historical values of annual MHW and 'Adjusted MHW' from Liverpool shown in Figures 1 and 2 respectively of:

Woodworth, P.L. 1999. High waters at Liverpool since 1768: the UK's longest sea level record. Geophysical Research Letters, 26 (11), 1589-1592.

can be found in the files lpool.annual.mhw.fig1.grl and lpool.annual.mhw.adjusted respectively. Units are cm. See the paper for discussion on the data sets.

Brest

A time series of quasi-MSL at Brest was computed as part of the thesis work of Nicholas Pouvreau (University of La Rochelle, 2008). This series starts during the 18th century, much earlier than the true-MSL series from 1807 available from the PSMSL, and was included as a supplement to

Woodworth, P. L., Pouvreau, N., and Wöppelmann, G.: The gyre-scale circulation of the North Atlantic and sea level at Brest, Ocean Sci., 6, 185-190, doi:10.5194/os-6-185-2010, 2010.

A longer description is included in Brest_time_series.txt, and the data can be found in BrMHW_diurnalresidue.txt.

Boston and New York

Through a careful examination of correspondence, benchmarks records and other evidence, Talke et al. have created a composite record of annual mean sea level at Boston dating back to 1825, comprised of recovered data from the Charlestown Navy Yard, and some proposed corrections to the existing NOAA record from Boston

Talke, S. A., Kemp, A. C. and Woodruff, J. (2018). Relative Sea Level, Tides, and Extreme Water Levels in Boston Harbor From 1825 to 2018. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans, 123, 3895–3914. https://doi.org/10.1029/2017JC013645

As part of their supporting information they also include a composite (non-continuous) monthly record of measurements taken at the Charlestown Navy Yard, Boston between 1825 and 1911, and a monthly file proposing some corrections to the NOAA record in New York between 1856 and 1861 based on recovered data. They have provided PSMSL with a corrected annual record for New York between 1856 and 2017.

The author's files are available here, along with versions reformatted into the standard PSMSL format:

Boston Monthly Data: Original, PSMSL
Boston Annual Data: Original, PSMSL
New York Monthly Data: Original, PSMSL
New York Annual Data: Original, PSMSL