Premium
Evidence for a differential sea level rise between hemispheres over the twentieth century
Author(s) -
Wöppelmann Guy,
Marcos Marta,
SantamaríaGómez Alvaro,
MartínMíguez Belén,
Bouin MarieNoëlle,
Gravelle Médéric
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2013gl059039
Subject(s) - sea level change , tide gauge , sea level , sea level rise , climate change , climatology , spatial coherence , coherence (philosophical gambling strategy) , global change , global warming , oceanography , geology , physical geography , geography , physics , quantum mechanics
Tide gauge records are the primary source of sea level information over multidecadal to century timescales. A critical issue in using this type of data to determine global climate‐related contributions to sea level change concerns the vertical motion of the land upon which the gauges are grounded. Here we use observations from the Global Positioning System for the correction of this vertical land motion. As a result, the spatial coherence in the rates of sea level change during the twentieth century is highlighted at the local and the regional scales, ultimately revealing a clearly distinct behavior between the Northern and the Southern Hemispheres with values of 2.0 mm/yr and 1.1 mm/yr, respectively. Our findings challenge the widely accepted value of global sea level rise for the twentieth century.