Assessing the global averaged sea-level budget from 2003 to 2010

Abstract

A global mass balance (Greenland and Antarctica ice sheet mass loss, terrestrial water storage) and different sea-level components (observed sea-level from satellite altimetry, steric sea-level from Ishii data, and ocean mass from gravity recovery and climate experiment, GRACE) are estimated, in terms of seasonal and interannual variabilities from 2003 to 2010. The results show that a detailed analysis of the GRACE time series over the time period 2003–2010 unambiguously reveals an increase in mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet and Antarctica ice sheet. The mass loss of both ice sheets accelerated at a rate of (392.8±70.0) Gt/a during 2003–2010, which contributed (1.09±0.19) mm/a to the globalmean sea-level during this time. The net terrestrial water storage (TWS) trend was negative over the 8 a time span, which gave a small positive contribution of (0.25±0.12) mm/a. The interannual variability of the globalmean sea-level was at least partly caused by year-to-year variability of land water storage. Estimating GRACE-based ice sheet mass balance and terrestrial water storage by using published estimates for melting glaciers, the results further show that the ocean mass increase since 2003 has resulted half from an enhanced contribution of the polar ice sheets, and half from the combined ice sheet and terrestrial water storage loss. Taking also into account the melting of mountain glaciers (0.41 mm/a) and the small GRACE-based contribution from continental waters (0.25 mm/a), a total ocean mass contribution of (1.75±0.57) mm/a from 2003 to 2010 is found. Such a value represented 75% of the altimetry-based rate of sea-level rise over that period. The contributions to steric sea-level (i.e., ocean thermal expansion plus salinity effects) are estimated from: (1) the difference between altimetry-based sea-level and ocean mass change and (2) the latest Ishii data. The inferred steric sea-level rate from(1) (1.41 mm/a from 2003 to 2010) did not agree well with the Ishii-based value also estimated here (0.44 mm/a from 2003 to 2010), but phase. The cause for such a discrepancy is not yet known but may be related to inadequate sampling of in situ ocean temperature and salinity measurements.