Resources

GLOSS Station Handbook

Station information sheet

General                                  
GLOSS number139
Station name

Rarotonga

CountryCook Islands
Time zone150W, GMT - 10hrs
Latitude (+ve N)-21.2
Longitude (+ve E)-159.76666
OceanPacific
Observation period(s)Float gauge 1977-; Acoustic gauge 1993-
Responsible countryAustralia
Authority responsible
for tide gauge
National Tidal Centre, Australia (see GLOSS Contact Points).
GLOSS contactAustralia
Committed to GLOSSYes
OperationalYes
Location mapView location map for GLOSS station Rarotonga
Instrumentation 
FloatYes
PressureNo
BubblerNo
AcousticYes
RadarNo
Data
Digital dataYes
Additional parametersBarometric pressure, water and air temperature, wind speed and direction.
Data acquisition rate6 minute intervals
Fast delivery data at UHSLCDownload h023.dat from UHSLC   Format documentation for UHSLC data
High frequency data at BODCDownload g139.zip from BODC   View Rarotonga site history   View BODC document #57345  
High frequency data at UHSLCDownload h023a.zip from UHSLC   Download documentation qa023a.dmt from UHSLC   Download h023b.zip from UHSLC   Download documentation qa023b.dmt from UHSLC   Format documentation for UHSLC data
Real-time data availableYes
Real-time data transmitted
to GLOSS Fast Centre
Real-time data plots from UHSLC
Additional parameters (real-time)Barometric pressure, water and air temperature, wind speed and direction.
Benchmarks 
Tide gauge benchmarksCT/1: triangular stamp (steel pin) with '1' at centre of concrete emplacement; located across street from tide house in parking area of courtyard of govt house near flagpole. Fixed within island wide survey.
Auxiliary benchmarksUH-1: SS pin in concrete emplaced about 10ft W of tide staff at edge of quay, about 2ft from water on cement slab, which seems to be sinking. UH-2: 1 inch SS disc, no stamp, emplaced in concrete about 10ft E of tide staff on finger pier. Not locatable in Feb. 1992 - destroyed. UH-4: 1 inch square SS on top of pin set in white epoxy in cement, located near the closest corner of bldg to right, facing away from sea.
Data at PSMSL 
Annual MSL (RLR) dataDownload annual MSL (RLR) data for Rarotonga   Download annual MSL (RLR) data for Rarotonga
Annual MSL (RLR) plotView annual MSL (RLR) plot for Rarotonga   View annual MSL (RLR) plot for Rarotonga
MSL methodHourly means
PSMSL code1843
Other relevant codesNTF port no. 65980, UHSLC 023
Additional information 
Other relevant informationBackup gauges on site: 1) Leupold Stevens ADR (December 1984-) 2) Handar encoder ADR (December 1984-) Daily values calculated using 119-point convolution filter (Bloomfield, 1976) centred on noon applied to the hourly data with respective periods of the 95, 50 and 5% amplitude points at 124.0, 60.2 and 40.2 hours.
Last updated2002-10-16