Drivers of Interannual Sea Level Variability on the Northwestern European Shelf
Published in JGR Oceans, 2020
Recommended citation: Hermans, T. H. J., Le Bars, D.,Katsman, C. A., Camargo, C. M. L.,Gerkema, T., Calafat, F. M., et al. (2020). Drivers of interannual sea level variability on the northwestern European shelf. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans,125, e2020JC016325. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JC016325 https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2020JC016325
“Sea level on the continental shelf northwest of Europe is rising in thelong term but is also varying strongly from year to year. This makes it difficult to determine the rate ofsea level rise from observations. To improve long‐term trends computed from sea level observations, thecauses of short‐term sea level variability need to be understood. Therefore, we test the influences of differentcomponents of the atmosphere and ocean on year‐to‐year sea level variability, using a numerical oceanmodel for northwestern Europe. Wefind that the varying strength and direction of winds causes largevariability of sea level in the southern and eastern North Sea. In other places on the continental shelf, sealevel variability is mainly influenced by the variability of atmospheric pressure. We alsofind that theocean outside our model domain drives small and uniform sea level variability on the continental shelf andthat there is a moderate influence of solar radiation, precipitation, and evaporation. Our results help tounderstand how sea level varies at different locations in northwestern Europe and to obtain better estimatesof the rate of long‐term sea level rise.”