Abstract
The output of the ORCHIDEE Land Surface Model, driven by a 53‐yr (1948–2000) atmospheric forcing data set, was used to estimate the effects of land water storage on global mean sea level. Over the past half century, no significant trend was detected but there is a strong decadal variability in the land water storage, driven by precipitation and originating principally in the tropics. The land water contribution to sea level change over the past 50 yr appears highly anti‐correlated with thermal expansion of the oceans. This result suggests that change in ocean heat content influences the global water cycle. It also shows that, at decadal time scale, there is partial compensation in sea level changes between thermal expansion and ocean water mass change due to changes in land water storage.
Highlights
[1] The output of the ORCHIDEE Land Surface Model, driven by a 53-yr (1948 – 2000) atmospheric forcing data set, was used to estimate the effects of land water storage on global mean sea level
Dynamics -LaD- land surface model (LSM), Milly et al showed that only 0.12 mm/yr equivalent mean sea level could be attributed to the land water contribution over the last two decades, while a significant interannual signal was reported
[3] In this study, we extend to the past half century (1948– 2000) the estimate of the contribution of terrestrial waters to sea level change, using the ORCHIDEE (Organising Carbon and Hydrology in Dynamic EcosystEms) LSM developed at the Institute Pierre Simon Laplace (Paris, France) for climate studies
Summary
[1] The output of the ORCHIDEE Land Surface Model, driven by a 53-yr (1948 – 2000) atmospheric forcing data set, was used to estimate the effects of land water storage on global mean sea level. Dynamics -LaD- land surface model (LSM), Milly et al showed that only 0.12 mm/yr equivalent mean sea level could be attributed to the land water contribution over the last two decades, while a significant interannual signal was reported. We focus on the contribution of simulated land water storage to sea level variations during the last 53 yr.
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