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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 32, L01601, doi:10.1029/2004GL021391, 2005

Coastal and global averaged sea level rise for 1950 to 2000

Neil J. White

CSIRO Marine Research, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

John A. Church

CSIRO Marine Research, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

Jonathan M. Gregory

Centre for Global Atmospheric Modelling, Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, Reading, UK

Abstract

We compare estimates of coastal and global averaged sea level for 1950 to 2000. During the 1990s and around 1970, we find coastal sea level is rising faster than the global average but that it rises slower than the global average during the late 1970s and late 1980s. The differences are largely a result of sampling the time-varying geographical distribution of sea level rise along a coastline which is more convoluted in some regions than others. More rapid coastal rise corresponds to La Niña–like conditions in the tropical Pacific Ocean and a slower rate corresponds to El Niño–like conditions. Over the 51 year period, there is no significant difference in the rates of coastal and global averaged sea level rise, as found in climate model simulations of the 20th century. The best estimate of both global average and coastal sea level rise remains 1.8 ± 0.3 mm yr⁻¹, as found in earlier studies.

Received 1 September 2004; accepted 6 December 2004; published 5 January 2005.

Index Terms: 1620 Global Change: Climate dynamics (0429, 3309); 1635 Global Change: Oceans (1616, 3305, 4215, 4513); 4215 Oceanography: General: Climate and interannual variability (1616, 1635, 3305, 3309, 4513); 4556 Oceanography: Physical: Sea level: variations and mean (1222, 1225, 1641).

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Citation: White, N. J., J. A. Church, and J. M. Gregory (2005), Coastal and global averaged sea level rise for 1950 to 2000, Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L01601, doi:10.1029/2004GL021391.

Copyright 2005 by the American Geophysical Union.