"The ocean takes center stage during the king tides, predicted to arrive on the California coast this Wednesday through Friday, and then again Dec. 4-6 and Jan. 1-3. Waters climb to their highest point of the year, flooding some Bay Area beaches, stairways and streets before plunging to their lowest, exposing stretches of sand and reef usually hidden. The spectacle draws photographers, beachgoers and scientists alike, because beyond the beauty, king tides reveal how the coast is changing."
"Although tides are predictable, they remain under-monitored along much of the California coast, including Santa Cruz. Lee and her team are developing low-cost tidal gauges to track water levels in these gaps, especially during king tides, when extreme highs mirror the levels scientists expect to see more often with future sea-level rise. "The best time to plant an orchard was 30 years ago. The second best time is now, and that's the same with collecting data," Lee says."
King tides periodically raise and lower coastal waters to extreme levels, flooding beaches, stairways and streets while exposing sand and reef. Tides are bulges of water that Earth rotates under; king tides occur when the sun, moon and Earth align, intensifying gravitational pull and driving higher water. Monitoring remains sparse along much of the California coast, so researchers are building low-cost tidal gauges to fill gaps and capture extreme highs that mirror projected sea-level rise. Webcams, machine learning and 3D modeling are being used to track daily beach and intertidal-zone shifts for measurement and planning.
Read at The Mercury News
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