Impacts of Basin-Scale Climate Modes on Coastal Sea Level: a Review

Han, Weiqing; Stammer, Detlef; Thompson, P. R.; Ezer, Tal; Palanisamy, Hindumathi; Zhang, Xuebin; Domingues, Catia M.; Zhang, Lei; Yuan, Dongliang

doi:10.1007/s10712-019-09562-8

Cited by 63 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 299 publications

(492 reference statements)

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“…1.2, the ocean-driven LFCIV, and therefore random sea-level trends, are largely underestimated in laminar ocean simulations forced by the atmosphere, and presumably also in ocean-atmosphere coupled simulations where the oceanic mesoscale is absent. In other words, the LFCIV is an oceanic driver of coastal sea-level changes in the turbulent regime, which may compete with the external drivers examined in Woodworth et al (2019) and with the ocean-atmosphere coupled modes presented by Han et al (2019). More importantly, the random character of LFCIV suggests that it actually constitutes a source of uncertainty for the detection and attribution of coastal sea-level trends, in addition to those simulated by climate models (Carson et al 2019), and that these uncertainties should also be taken into account for coastal sea-level projections (see Jevrejeva et al 2019).…”

Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trends of Coastal Sea Level Between 1993 and 2015: Imprints of Atmospheric Forcing and Oceanic Chaos

Penduff

Llovel

et al. 2019

Surv Geophys

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The observation and simulation of the variability of coastal sea level are impacted by various uncertainties, such as measurement errors and sampling biases, unresolved processes, and model and forcing biases. Ocean model simulations suggest that another uncertainty should be taken into account for the attribution of sea-level changes. Global ocean simulations indeed show that resolving mesoscale turbulence (even partly) promotes the emergence of low-frequency (LF) chaotic intrinsic variability (CIV) which causes substantial random fluctuations of sea level up to multiple decades in eddy-active regions of the world ocean. This random LFCIV is superimposed on the atmospherically forced (or simply "forced") fluctuations, which are directly controlled by the atmospheric variability. We show from a large ensemble of global oceanic hindcasts that this multi-decadal LFCIV leaves a substantial imprint on the long-term trends (1993-2015) of coastal sea level: over 17-20% of the global ocean coastal area, in particular along the coastlines of the northwestern Pacific and Indian Oceans, and around the Gulf of Mexico, random sealevel trends may blur their atmospherically forced counterpart, such that simulated (and potentially observed) coastal sea-level trends cannot be unambiguously attributed to atmospheric or anthropic causes. The steric and manometric sea-level change contributions of these uncertainties are discussed, suggesting that they mostly come from the manometric sea-level trends near the coasts.

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Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Trends of Coastal Sea Level Between 1993 and 2015: Imprints of Atmospheric Forcing and Oceanic Chaos

Penduff

Llovel

et al. 2019

Surv Geophys

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“…The monthly Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO) index (Enfield et al, 2001) for 1900-2015 was obtained from NOAA (https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/timeseries/AMO/); AMO represents variations in the sea surface temperature (SST) over the Atlantic Ocean. Long-term variations in sea level, such as the ~60-year long cycle, are thought of being influenced by AMO (Chambers et al, 2012) and correlations of AMO with patterns of sea level along the U.S. and European coasts are often indicated (Ezer et al, 2016;Han et al, 2019).…”

Section: Data Sources and Analysis Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Low-passed filtered data (using EMD modes) shows variations in two major periodbands of ~5-10 years and 10-60 years. The decadal and multidecadal variations in the global acceleration/deceleration of sea level were described by Dangendorf et al (2019) and others, but we further want to evaluate here if regional variations in ocean dynamics may play a role and how these variations are connected to basin-scale climate modes (Han et al, 2019).…”

Section: Sea Level Rise and Gulf Stream Variability 1900-2015mentioning

confidence: 98%

Global sea level reconstruction for 1900–2015 reveals regional variability in ocean dynamics and an unprecedented long weakening in the Gulf Stream flow since the 1990s

Ezer¹,

Dangendorf²

2020

Preprint

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Abstract. A new monthly global sea level reconstruction for 1900–2015 was analyzed and compared with various observations to examine regional variability and trends in the ocean dynamics of the western North Atlantic Ocean and the U.S. East Coast. A proxy of the Gulf Stream (GS) strength in the Mid-Atlantic Bight (GS-MAB) and in the South Atlantic Bight (GS-SAB) were derived from sea level differences across the GS in the two regions. While decadal oscillations dominate the 116-year record, the analysis showed an unprecedented long period of weakening in the GS flow since the late 1990s. The only other period of long weakening in the record was during the 1960s–1970s. Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD) was used to separate oscillations at different time scales, showing that the low-frequency variability of the GS is connected to the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillations (AMO) and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). The recent weakening of the reconstructed GS-MAB was mostly influenced by weakening of the upper mid-ocean transport component of AMOC as observed by the RAPID measurements for 2005–2015. Comparison between the reconstructed sea level near the coast and tide gauge data for 1927–2015 showed that the reconstruction underestimated observed coastal sea level variability for time scales less than ~ 5 years, but lower frequency variability of coastal sea level was captured very well in both amplitude and phase by the reconstruction. Comparison between the GS-SAB proxy and the observed Florida Current transport for 1982–2015 also showed significant correlations for oscillations with periods longer than ~ 5 years. The study demonstrated that despite the coarse horizontal resolution of the global reconstruction (1° x 1°), long-term variations in regional dynamics can be captured quite well, thus making the data useful for studies of long-term variability in other regions as well.

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“…The paper discusses the importance of both remote and local dynamical processes associated with climate modes in causing substantial interannual and longer variability in sea level at the coast. Han et al (2019) stress the need for longer observations and dedicated modelling for improved treatment of climate modes and their impacts on coastal sea level forecasts and projections.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hughes et al (2019) define and explain the wave properties and their impact on shelf sea dynamics as well as how open ocean dynamics leads to coastal signals and the specific influence of coastal-trapped waves. On another topic, Han et al (2019) deal with the impact of natural internal modes, such as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, Indian Ocean Dipole and North Atlantic Oscillation, on coastal sea level on all major ocean basins. The paper discusses the importance of both remote and local dynamical processes associated with climate modes in causing substantial interannual and longer variability in sea level at the coast.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Guest Editorial: Relationships Between Coastal Sea Level and Large-Scale Ocean Circulation

et al. 2019

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Several hundred million people currently live in low-lying coastal regions, and this number will continue to increase in the coming decades. While some coastal areas are already being inundated by rising sea level, many others will also increasingly suffer from sea level rise and more intense extreme water levels during high tides, winter storms and hurricanes in the near future. Many oceanographic factors associated with both local and large-scale variability can influence coastal sea level, from hours to more than decades. Despite this coastal-open ocean link, differences exist between sea levels observed at the coast and over adjacent shallow and deep ocean regions. Distinct coastal sea level variability can arise, for example, due to coastally trapped waves and shelf currents, localized tidal resonances,

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Impacts of Basin-Scale Climate Modes on Coastal Sea Level: a Review

Cited by 63 publications

References 299 publications

Trends of Coastal Sea Level Between 1993 and 2015: Imprints of Atmospheric Forcing and Oceanic Chaos

Trends of Coastal Sea Level Between 1993 and 2015: Imprints of Atmospheric Forcing and Oceanic Chaos

Global sea level reconstruction for 1900–2015 reveals regional variability in ocean dynamics and an unprecedented long weakening in the Gulf Stream flow since the 1990s

Guest Editorial: Relationships Between Coastal Sea Level and Large-Scale Ocean Circulation

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