OCEANOGRAPHY OF THE ROSS SEA

Cape Roberts Tide Gauge

Investigator: Alex Pyne
Organisation: Antarctic Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington

The Cape Roberts Tide gauge was initially established in 1990 by VUW to support marine geological investigations and the Cape Roberts Project drilling operations.  A permanent installation has been established and has continued operating since 1990 providing the longest tidal record for the Ross Sea region of Antarctica.  The operation of the tide gauge has encouraged USGS and Ohio State University workers to establish Cape Roberts as a primary datum for their GPS stress and deformation control network in South Victoria Land.  In 2000 LINZ in partnership with USGS have established a continuously recording GPS station at Cape Roberts that will also require continued tidal records.  LINZ bathymetric survey commitments in the Ross Sea (C. Adare and C. Hallet) require a linked Ross Sea tidal datum and the Cape Roberts Tide gauge data recording was modified in 2000/2001 for this purpose. The installation will be serviced by VUW, supported by LINZ and data archived by LINZ.