New estimate of the current rate of sea level rise from a sea level budget approach

• Published in: Geophysical research letters 2017-04, Vol.44 (8), p.3744-3751
• Main Authors: Dieng, H. B., Cazenave, A., Meyssignac, B., Ablain, M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Altimeters; Altimetry; Budgeting; Earth Sciences; Environmental Sciences; Geophysics; Global Changes; Hydrodynamics; Mean sea level; Oceanography; Sciences of the Universe; Sea level; Sea level rise; Tidal range; TOPEX
• ISSN: 0094-8276; 1944-8007
• DOI: 10.1002/2017GL073308

We revisit the global mean sea level (GMSL) budget during the whole altimetry era (January 1993 to December 2015) using a large number of data sets. The budget approach allows quantifying the TOPEX A altimeter drift (amounting 1.5 ± 0.5 mm/yr over 1993–1998). Accounting for this correction and using ensemble means for the GMSL and components lead to closure of the sea level budget (trend of the residual time series being 0.0 ± 0.22 mm/yr). The new GMSL rate over January 1993 to December 2015 is now close to 3.0 mm/yr. An important increase of the GMSL rate, of 0.8 mm/yr, is found during the second half of the altimetry era (2004–2015) compared to the 1993–2004 time span, mostly due to Greenland mass loss increase and also to slight increase of all other components of the budget. The sea level budget approach allows quantifying instrumental drift of the TOPEX A altimeter operating in the early altimetry era Accounting for this drift leads to closure of the sea level budget and to revised rate of the global mean sea level The global mean sea level rate of the second half of the altimetry era has increased by 25% compared to the first half