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Long-Term Climate Monitoring by the Global Climate Observing System pp 385–414Cite as

Monitoring Sea Level Changes

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Abstract

Future sea level rise arouses concern because of potentially deleterious impacts to coastal regions. These will stem not only from the loss of land through inundation and erosion, but also from increased frequency of storm floods, with a rising base level, even with no change in storm climatology, and from saltwater intrusion and greater amounts of waterlogging. Current sea level trends are important in formulating an accurate baseline for future projections. Sea level, furthermore, is an important parameter which integrates a number of oceanic and atmospheric processes. The ocean surface demonstrates considerable variability on diurnal, seasonal, and interannual time scales, induced by winds, storm waves, coastal upwelling, and geostrophic currents. Secular trends in sea level arise from changes in global mean temperature and also from crustal deformation on local to regional scales. The challenge facing researchers is how best to extract the climate signal from this noise.

This paper re-examines recent estimates of sea level rise, discusses causes of variability in the sea level records, and describes methods employed to filter out some of these contaminating signals. Evidence for trends in long-term sea level records and in extreme events is investigated. Application of satellite geodesy to sea level research is briefly reviewed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Climate Systems Research, Columbia University and NASA GSFC Institute for Space Studies, 2880 Broadway, New York, NY, 10025, USA

    Vivien Gornitz

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  1. Vivien Gornitz
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  1. U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Climatic Data Center, 151 Patton Avenue, Room 120, Asheville, NC, 28801-5001, USA

    Thomas R. Karl

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© 1996 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Gornitz, V. (1996). Monitoring Sea Level Changes. In: Karl, T.R. (eds) Long-Term Climate Monitoring by the Global Climate Observing System. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0323-7_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0323-7_20

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-4143-0

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