Tide Gauge Network

A tide gauge network is an array of coastal stations recording water level against a fixed land benchmark, the longest instrumental record of sea level, with some European stations running back to the 1800s. Because the benchmark moves with the land, modern gauges co-locate GPS to separate vertical land motion from true sea-level change. Tide gauges calibrate satellite altimetry, anchor sea-level reconstructions before 1992, and supply the local relative-rise figures that coastal engineering needs.