Ocean tide loading refers to the periodic redistribution of water masses due to tidal forcing, which causes deformations of the solid Earth and perturbations of the gravity field. The resulting elastic and gravitational responses of the solid Earth are termed "load tides" (e.g., Farrell, 1972). Load tides at the Earth's surface can be described as vertical displacement, horizontal displacement and the gravitational potential increment. In ocean areas, the geoid undulation relative to the vertical displacement is specified by the "self-attraction and loading" (SAL: e.g., Ray, 1998) elevation. Load tides are as important as body tides (e.g., Takeuchi, 1950) in making up the total tide of the solid Earth induced by the astronomical forces. On the other hand, the SAL potential (SAL elevation times surface gravity) induces secondary barotropic accelerations that influence ocean tide dynamics, and, as a result, their consideration is a necessity for generating an accurate ocean

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