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How nonlinearities in the equation of state of seawater can confound estimates of steric sea level change
Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, San Diego, California, USA
The process of mixing water masses that have differing temperatures, salinities, and pressures creates water that is typically denser than the average density of the source waters. Thus mixing the ocean, either along isopycnals or vertically, tends to decrease global sea level, even when no heat or salt is added to the ocean. This effect is small in the global ocean, but regional effects can be substantial. Two recommendations emerge from this study. First, numerical predictions of steric sea level rise should be designed to minimize sensitivity to erroneous isopycnal or vertical/diapycnal mixing rates that might over or under mix water masses. Second, retrospective analyses of steric sea level rise in historic data should avoid using gridded temperature and salinity fields to compute steric sea level change, since mapping smooths data in the same way that mixing does.
Received 19 June 2003; accepted 2 December 2003; published 2 March 2004.
Citation: (2004), How nonlinearities in the equation of state of seawater can confound estimates of steric sea level change, J. Geophys. Res., 109, C03005, doi:10.1029/2003JC002012.
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