Exploring Sources of Uncertainty in Steric Sea-Level Change Estimates
Published in JGR Oceans, 2020
Recommended citation: Camargo, C. M. L., Riva, R. E. M.,Hermans, T. H. J., & Slangen, A. B. A. (2020). Exploring sources of uncertaintyin steric sea‐level change estimates. Journal of Geophysical Research:Oceans,125, e2020JC016551. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JC016551 https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2020JC016551
“Ocean temperature and salinity variations lead to changes in sealevel, known as steric sea‐level change. Steric variations are important contributors to sea‐level changeand reflect how the oceans have been responding to global warming. For this reason, several recent studieshave quantified the contribution of steric variations to global and regional sea‐level change. However, thereported rates largely differ between studies. In this paper, we look at how the use of differenttemperature and salinity data sets can be one of the causes of the different estimates of steric sea‐level changepublished so far. We also investigate how different methods (noise models) used to obtain the rate ofchange can be another source of different results. Wefind that the rate of change can vary up to 2 mm/yearfor the global mean as a result of different data sets and methods used. Regionally, differences canreach up to several tens of millimeters per year. We show that the noise models should always be carefullychosen for each region, so that the rate of change is accurately estimated.”