Physical Processes Impacting Regional Sea Level (PISeaL)
Yueyang Lu, Odilon Houndegnonto

What physical processes influence sea level changes in different regions? What are their relative importance?

Objectives

  • To separate the sea level into different components
  • To understand the processes that influence sea level changes.

Conclusions

  • ECCO’s dynamical sea surface height can be decomposed into the manometric (mass) and steric (density) components, in most of the oceans.
  • Mass change is more important in the shelf region, while the density change dominates in the open ocean.
  • Thermosteric effect is generally more important than the halosteric one except the Arctic Ocean.
  • Regional differences:
    • European shelf: manometric plays a dominant role in the total sea level variability
    • Eastern tropical Atlantic (Gulf of Guinea): steric dominates the total variability, while manometric contributes to long-term trends