TideWatcher

TideWatcher is a tide monitoring and forecasting platform that provides real-time tide levels and short-term predictions for coastal areas. It integrates measurements from tide gauges, buoys, and satellite altimetry with oceanographic models to generate current tide heights, times, and surge indicators for planners, mariners, and educators.

The project emerged from community-driven coastal science initiatives in the 2010s, evolving from a collection of low-cost sensors and open data practices into a shared software platform. It emphasizes interoperability, open data, and modular deployment, allowing users to run the system on local hardware or in cloud environments.

Data and modeling: tide gauge data, buoy sensor data, satellite altimetry, and meteorological inputs feed ingestion pipelines. Quality control flags outliers; data fusion combines measurements with physics-based models and statistical forecasts. Forecast ranges typically cover 0 to 72 hours, with hourly outputs and event alerts.

Features: real-time tide levels, high and low water predictions, next high/low water times, storm surge warnings, historical tide records, customizable dashboards, and an API for developers and researchers. The platform supports multiple units, localization, and integration with third-party navigation or GIS tools.

Applications and impact: used by coastal communities and authorities for navigation planning, flood risk assessment, harbor operations, fisheries management, and education. It supports open data workflows and reproducible science.

Governance and licensing: TideWatcher is provided as open-source software under a permissive license, with a community-led governance model and contribution guidelines.