Tidal Crest-Stage Gage

Tidal Crest-Stage Gage located at the USGS 01482650 Salem River at Salem, New Jersey site.

To cover areas with less accessibility and gain data between the established tide gages, tidal crest-stage gages were installed at sites along the coast to augment the peak flow record for the back bays. Tidal crest-stage gages are simple, non-mechanical devices can only be read manually and record the peak tidal elevation between inspections. These manual gages provide verification of recorded peaks. 

After Hurricane Sandy, the New Jersey Water Science Center redesigned our tidal CSGs to allow for rapid deployment of pressure transducers before an approaching coastal storm. In addition to collecting peak tidal elevations, these storm-surge tidal CSGs with pressure transducers attached can collect a tidal elevation up to 4 times a second! This high-frequency data allows hydrographers to compute wave information and better understand the impact of coastal flooding.