QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF SEA LEVEL DATA                
                                           by the                               
                   UH SEA LEVEL CENTER/NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC DATA CENTER     
                                 JOINT ARCHIVE FOR SEA LEVEL                    
                                       updated: 08 Mar 2002
              Station  : Tawau                     Latitude:  04 14.0N          
              Country  : Malaysia                 Longitude: 117 53.0E          
              JASL #   : 385A                 Time Meridian: 120E (GMT + 8 hr)  
              GLOSS #  : none     TOGA #: none       NODC #: 10114701           
              Contributor  : Dept. of Survey and Mapping                        
                             Jalan Gurney                                       
                             50578 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia                       
              Originator   : same                                               
              Original Data: digital; samples taken every 10 sec; 50 sec average
              Instrmnt Type: Magnetic Tape Type Tide Gauge, Model LLT-          
                             3AD (Kyowa Shoko Co. LTD, Japan)                   
              Digitzd Intvl: one hour                                           
              Present Data : Hourly, daily, and monthly values obtained by:     
                    Hourly : Five-point least squares approximation (more       
                             information available from the address above)      
                    Daily  : 119-point convolution filter (Bloomfield, 1976)    
                             centered 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    
                    Monthly: Simple average of all daily values; calculated if  
                             7 or fewer days are missing                        
              Span of data : 26 Jun 1987 - 31 May 2001
              Gaps > 1 mon : 31 Jan 1990 - 05 Mar 1990;07 Jun 1991 - 06 Jul 1991
                             03 Aug 1992 - 05 Sep 1992;13 Jan 1999 - 09 Mar 1999
                             05 May 1999 - 09 Jul 1999
              Time Refernce: GMT (hours 00-23)   Space-filler Flag   :-9999     
              Units        : millimeters         Missing Data Flag   : 9999     
              Existing     : Yes                 Operational         : Yes      
              Sat. Trans.  : No                  Distribution        : 1987-2001
              Refernce Levl: The sea level heights are referred to the zero     
                             point assigned to the tide gauge. Bench mark       
                             information is available upon request from the     
                             contributors.                                      
              Comment      : A sharp drop of about 15 cm from 30 Sep -  4 Oct,  
                             1989 is present.  The originators report no obvious
                             errors.  The feature is most likely the result of  
                             a meteorological or oceanographical event. Periodic
                             signatures in the residuals are believed to be due 
                             to the inability of the harmonic analysis to       
                             resolve completely some of the tidal constituents. 
                             Only extreme fluctuations in the residuals are     
                             noted below which may be due to phase shifts in    
                             the timing.  The daily and monthly values agree    
                             fairly well with Bitung, Indonesia.                
                                                                                
                    CI MISSING              REPLACED GAPS     QUESTIONABLE      
              YEAR (%) DATA                 OR BAD DATA       FLUCTUATIONS      
              ---- --- -------------------- --------------- --------------------
              1987  51 347-350              none            none                
              1988  94 41-62                none            none                
              1989  96 212-214,215-216,     (19)174-(03)175 302-304             
                       238-248,248-252                                          
              1990  92 31-64                none            95-99               
              1991  92 158-187              none            none                
              1992  89 216-249,270-276      none            none
              1993  90 31-37,41-48,99-120,  none            none
                       234-237
              1994  94 321-343              none            none
              1995 100 none                 none            none
              1996 100 none                 none            none

              1997 100 none                 none            none
              1998 100 none                 none            273-305
              1999  67 13-68,125-190        none            none
              2000 100 none                 none            none
              2001  41 none                 none            36-56