Acceleration of U.S. Southeast and Gulf coast sea-level rise amplified by internal climate variability
Abstract While there is evidence for an acceleration in global mean sea level (MSL) since the 1960s, its detection at local levels has been hampered by the considerable influence of natural variability on the rate of MSL change. Here we report a MSL acceleration in tide gauge records along the U.S....
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Nature Portfolio
2023-04-01
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| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-37649-9 |
| _version_ | 1797845859906355200 |
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| author | Sönke Dangendorf Noah Hendricks Qiang Sun John Klinck Tal Ezer Thomas Frederikse Francisco M. Calafat Thomas Wahl Torbjörn E. Törnqvist |
| author_facet | Sönke Dangendorf Noah Hendricks Qiang Sun John Klinck Tal Ezer Thomas Frederikse Francisco M. Calafat Thomas Wahl Torbjörn E. Törnqvist |
| author_sort | Sönke Dangendorf |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract While there is evidence for an acceleration in global mean sea level (MSL) since the 1960s, its detection at local levels has been hampered by the considerable influence of natural variability on the rate of MSL change. Here we report a MSL acceleration in tide gauge records along the U.S. Southeast and Gulf coasts that has led to rates (>10 mm yr−1 since 2010) that are unprecedented in at least 120 years. We show that this acceleration is primarily induced by an ocean dynamic signal exceeding the externally forced response from historical climate model simulations. However, when the simulated forced response is removed from observations, the residuals are neither historically unprecedented nor inconsistent with internal variability in simulations. A large fraction of the residuals is consistent with wind driven Rossby waves in the tropical North Atlantic. This indicates that this ongoing acceleration represents the compounding effects of external forcing and internal climate variability. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T17:45:48Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3208791f3c6043979125cb055fc75a22 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2041-1723 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T17:45:48Z |
| publishDate | 2023-04-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nature Communications |
| spelling | doaj.art-3208791f3c6043979125cb055fc75a222023-04-16T11:18:29ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232023-04-0114111110.1038/s41467-023-37649-9Acceleration of U.S. Southeast and Gulf coast sea-level rise amplified by internal climate variabilitySönke Dangendorf0Noah Hendricks1Qiang Sun2John Klinck3Tal Ezer4Thomas Frederikse5Francisco M. Calafat6Thomas Wahl7Torbjörn E. Törnqvist8Department of River-Coastal Science and Engineering, Tulane UniversityCenter for Coastal Physical Oceanography, Department of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Old Dominion UniversityDepartment of River-Coastal Science and Engineering, Tulane UniversityCenter for Coastal Physical Oceanography, Department of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Old Dominion UniversityCenter for Coastal Physical Oceanography, Department of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Old Dominion UniversityJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of TechnologyNational Oceanography CentreDepartment of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering, University of Central FloridaDepartment of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Tulane UniversityAbstract While there is evidence for an acceleration in global mean sea level (MSL) since the 1960s, its detection at local levels has been hampered by the considerable influence of natural variability on the rate of MSL change. Here we report a MSL acceleration in tide gauge records along the U.S. Southeast and Gulf coasts that has led to rates (>10 mm yr−1 since 2010) that are unprecedented in at least 120 years. We show that this acceleration is primarily induced by an ocean dynamic signal exceeding the externally forced response from historical climate model simulations. However, when the simulated forced response is removed from observations, the residuals are neither historically unprecedented nor inconsistent with internal variability in simulations. A large fraction of the residuals is consistent with wind driven Rossby waves in the tropical North Atlantic. This indicates that this ongoing acceleration represents the compounding effects of external forcing and internal climate variability.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-37649-9 |
| spellingShingle | Sönke Dangendorf Noah Hendricks Qiang Sun John Klinck Tal Ezer Thomas Frederikse Francisco M. Calafat Thomas Wahl Torbjörn E. Törnqvist Acceleration of U.S. Southeast and Gulf coast sea-level rise amplified by internal climate variability Nature Communications |
| title | Acceleration of U.S. Southeast and Gulf coast sea-level rise amplified by internal climate variability |
| title_full | Acceleration of U.S. Southeast and Gulf coast sea-level rise amplified by internal climate variability |
| title_fullStr | Acceleration of U.S. Southeast and Gulf coast sea-level rise amplified by internal climate variability |
| title_full_unstemmed | Acceleration of U.S. Southeast and Gulf coast sea-level rise amplified by internal climate variability |
| title_short | Acceleration of U.S. Southeast and Gulf coast sea-level rise amplified by internal climate variability |
| title_sort | acceleration of u s southeast and gulf coast sea level rise amplified by internal climate variability |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-37649-9 |
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