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AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Keywords

  • sea level rise
  • global warming
  • climate change

Index Terms

  • Oceanography: Physical: Sea level: variations and mean
  • Global Change: Sea level change
  • Global Change: Climate variability
  • Geodesy and Gravity: Ocean monitoring with geodetic techniques
  • Cryosphere: Mass balance

Abstract

Closing the sea level rise budget with altimetry, Argo, and GRACE

Eric W. Leuliette

NOAA Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA

Laury Miller

NOAA Laboratory for Satellite Altimetry, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA

An analysis of the steric and ocean mass components of sea level shows that the sea level rise budget for the period January 2004 to December 2007 can be closed. Using corrected and verified Jason-1 and Envisat altimetry observations of total sea level, upper ocean steric sea level from the Argo array, and ocean mass variations inferred from GRACE gravity mission observations, we find that the sum of steric sea level and the ocean mass component has a trend of 1.5 ± 1.0 mm/a over the period, in agreement with the total sea level rise observed by either Jason-1 (2.4 ± 1.1 mm/a) or Envisat (2.7 ± 1.5 mm/a) within a 95% confidence interval.

Received 14 September 2008; accepted 28 January 2009; published 25 February 2009.

Citation: Leuliette, E. W., and L. Miller (2009), Closing the sea level rise budget with altimetry, Argo, and GRACE, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L04608, doi:10.1029/2008GL036010.

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