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