Inferring Global Ocean Mass Increase From Tide Gauges Network With Climate Models

Abstract

AbstractOcean mass increase contributes to global sea level rise, and plays an important role in understanding climate change. Here, we develop a data assimilation approach that enables the inference of ocean mass increase from global tide gauge network. This approach incorporates outputs from climate models and sea level fingerprints caused by water mass changes over land areas. The results suggest a trend of 2.15 ± 0.72 mm/yr for ocean mass increase over the period 1993–2022, which closes the global sea level budget with estimates of thermosteric sea level rise. Furthermore, the inferred ocean mass increase offers an insight into the causes of sea level rise since 1950. These findings emphasize the significance of climate models, in addition to simulating sea level changes, they contribute to understanding causes of sea level rise over the past decades.