Thermosteric sea level rise, 1955–2003

Antonov, John I.; Levitus, Sydney; Boyer, Tim

doi:10.1029/2005gl023112

Cited by 303 publications

(409 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Whereas the volcanic impact on the water cycle is transient, the steric drop in GSL may persist for many years (2,18). We note that the proposed mechanisms are consistent with the observation (see SI) that the initial rise in sea level is especially evident in regions where the steric change is relatively small, such as in the Baltic and Northeast Pacific (19,20). The magnitude of the impact on the water cycle may be seen by comparison with natural changes in global river discharge (21) where a 5% change corresponds to a change in GSL of 5.5 mm/year.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 74%

Observational evidence for volcanic impact on sea level and the global water cycle

Grinsted

Moore

Jevrejeva

2007

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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It has previously been noted that there are drops in global sea level (GSL) after some major volcanic eruptions. However, observational evidence has not been convincing because there is substantial variability in the global sea level record over periods similar to those at which we expect volcanoes to have an impact. To quantify the impact of volcanic eruptions we average monthly GSL data from 830 tide gauge records around five major volcanic eruptions. Surprisingly, we find that the initial response to a volcanic eruption is a significant rise in sea level of 9 ؎ 3 mm in the first year after the eruption. This rise is followed by a drop of 7 ؎ 3 mm in the period 2-3 years after the eruption relative to preeruption sea level. These results are statistically robust and no particular volcanic eruption or ocean region dominates the signature we find. Neither the drop nor especially the rise in GSL can be explained by models of lower oceanic heat content. We suggest that the mechanism is a transient disturbance of the water cycle with a delayed response of land river runoff relative to ocean evaporation and global precipitation that affects global sea level. The volcanic impact on the water cycle and sea levels is comparable in magnitude to that of a large El Niñ o-La Niñ a cycle, amounting to Ϸ5% of global land precipitation.climate ͉ evaporation ͉ heat content ͉ ocean ͉ precipitation V olcanic eruptions inject scattering aerosol into the stratosphere and thus impose a significant radiative cooling of the atmosphere (1). In the years after major eruptions it has been reported that there is a drop in global oceanic heat content (GOHC) (2, 3). A colder ocean is denser and an associated drop in global mean sea level of Ϸ5 mm during the 1-4 years after a major eruption has been modeled (2). However, observational evidence for the impact on global sea level (GSL) has so far not been convincing (4, 5) because there is substantial variability in the GSL record over periods similar to those at which we expect volcanoes to have an impact (6). Stenchikov et al. (7) found by modeling that large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns such as the Arctic Oscillation (AO) were affected by the Pinatubo eruption. We have previously shown a link between AO and European sea level (6), which is best explained by a redistribution of water driven by shifts in surface air pressure.Producing a GSL curve with valid confidence intervals from the observational database is not a trivial job (see Methods). We reconstruct GSL over the past 150 years by using all available time series (830) of monthly mean relative sea level (RSL) from the Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level (PSMSL) database (ref. 8 and Fig. 1). Sea level records do not cover the same time period and there is therefore no common reference level (Fig. 2). The time-varying geographical distribution of tide gauge records along the coastline is more convoluted in some regions than others, which will cause time-varying geographical bias if care is not taken to avoid this (9). Becau...

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 74%

Observational evidence for volcanic impact on sea level and the global water cycle

Grinsted

Moore

Jevrejeva

2007

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…A recent study by Antonov et al (2005) confirmed that the thermosteric sea level change in the entire equatorial Pacific (15°S-15°N) reveals ENSO-driven inter-annual variability. More locally, high sea surface temperatures are recorded during warm ENSO episodes in the eastern Pacific warm pool ( Fig.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 71%

Non-Linear Sea Level Variations in the Eastern Tropical Pacific

Niedzielski¹

2010

Artificial Satellites

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ABSTRACT. The objective of this paper is to provide an insightful interpretation for the non-linearity of the inter-annual signal in sea level change in the eastern tropical Pacific. Such a non-linearity has been already discussed elsewhere for global ocean. Herein, the residual sea level anomaly time series from TOPEX/Poseidon and Jason-1 altimetry is obtained by removing the significant deterministic signals from the original sea level anomaly data. Since the eastern tropical Pacific is a profound region where many processes responsible for driving the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) act, it is possible to link a few of them with the non-linearity of sea level change. In particular, not only local, usually weak, oceanatmosphere interactions exist in the eastern equatorial Pacific but this region is also remotely impacted by climatic processes acting in the western equatorial Pacific where the oceanatmosphere coupling is the strongest. The detected non-linearity of sea level change is due to the asymmetry between warm and cold ENSO episodes. Such an asymmetry can be driven by the non-linear dynamical heating associated with strong ENSO events.

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“…However, regional sea level changes have been very inhomogeneous over this period and are affected by changes in atmospheric wind stresses, and surface heat and freshwater fluxes (Ishii et al, 2003;Volkov et al, 2003;Antonov et al, 2005;Bindoff et al, 2007;Berge-Nguyen et al, 2008;Church et al, 2008;Woodworth et al, 2011a). Hence, regional sea level change is often associated with variations in ocean circulation (Landerer et al, 2007;Levermann et al, 2005;Flückiger et al, 2006;Stammer, 2008;Stammer et al, 2011;Lorbacher et al, 2010;Hu et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in extreme regional sea surface height due to an abrupt weakening of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation

et al. 2014

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Abstract.As an extreme scenario of dynamical sea level changes, regional sea surface height (SSH) changes that occur in the North Atlantic due to an abrupt weakening of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) are simulated. Two versions of the same ocean-only model are used to study the effect of ocean model resolution on these SSH changes: a high-resolution (HR) strongly eddying version and a low-resolution (LR) version in which the effect of eddies is parameterised. The weakening of the AMOC is induced in both model versions by applying strong freshwater perturbations around Greenland. A rapid decrease of the AMOC in the HR version induces much shorter return times of several specific regional and coastal extremes in North Atlantic SSH than in the LR version. This effect is caused by a change in main eddy pathways associated with a change in separation latitude of the Gulf Stream.

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Thermosteric sea level rise, 1955–2003

Cited by 303 publications

References 17 publications

Observational evidence for volcanic impact on sea level and the global water cycle

Observational evidence for volcanic impact on sea level and the global water cycle

Non-Linear Sea Level Variations in the Eastern Tropical Pacific

Changes in extreme regional sea surface height due to an abrupt weakening of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation

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