Closing the sea level budget on a regional scale: Trends and variability on the Northwestern European continental shelf. Issue 20 (24th October 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Frederikse, Thomas; Riva, Riccardo; Kleinherenbrink, Marcel; Wada, Yoshihide; van den Broeke, Michiel; Marzeion, Ben
• Is Part Of: Geophysical research letters. Volume 43:Issue 20(2016)
• Page Start: 10, 864
• Page End: 10, 872
• Publication Date: 2016-10-24
• Subjects: sea level budget; Geophysics -- Periodicals; Planets -- Periodicals; Lunar geology -- Periodicals; 550
• DOI: 10.1002/2016GL070750
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0094-8276

Abstract

Abstract: Long‐term trends and decadal variability of sea level in the North Sea and along the Norwegian coast have been studied over the period 1958–2014. We model the spatially nonuniform sea level and solid earth response to large‐scale ice melt and terrestrial water storage changes. GPS observations, corrected for the solid earth deformation, are used to estimate vertical land motion. We find a clear correlation between sea level in the North Sea and along the Norwegian coast and open ocean steric variability in the Bay of Biscay and west of Portugal, which is consistent with the presence of wind‐driven coastally trapped waves. The observed nodal cycle is consistent with tidal equilibrium. We are able to explain the observed sea level trend over the period 1958–2014 well within the standard error of the sum of all contributing processes, as well as the large majority of the observed decadal sea level variability. Key Points: Regional sea level budgets at the Northwestern European shelf over the last decades are closed Correlation between open ocean steric and shelf sea level is consistent with propagation of coastally trapped waves Vertical land motion and solid earth deformation are key to close the budget