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Abstract
The understanding of the physical drivers of sea level trend is crucial on global and regional scales. In particular, little is known about the sea level trend in the South Atlantic Ocean in comparison with other parts of the world. In this work, we computed the South Atlantic mean sea level (SAMSL) trend from 25 years of satellite altimetry data, and we analyzed the contributions of steric height (thermosteric and halosteric components) and ocean mass changes for the period 2005–2016 when all the source data used (Argo, GRACE and satellite altimetry) overlap. The SAMSL trend is 2.65 ± 0.24 mm/yr and is mostly explained by ocean mass trend, which is 2.22 ± 0.21 mm/yr. However, between 50° S–33° S, the steric height component constitutes the main contribution in comparison with the ocean mass component. Within that latitudinal band, three regions with trend values higher than the SAMSL trend are observed when considering 25 years of satellite SLA. In the three regions, a southward displacement of the Subtropical, Subantarctic, and Polar Fronts is observed. The southward shift of the fronts is associated with the strengthening and polar shift of westerly winds and contributes to a clear thermosteric trend that translates to the SLA trend observed in those regions.
Highlights
Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) sea level anomaly (SLA) was corrected by GIA in order to produce a SLA closer to the SLA of CSIRO
Both non-seasonal SLA trend maps, CMEMS and CSIRO, present a similar spatial pattern (Figure 2): the trend values are positive in the entire region, with relatively high values in the latitudinal band between 33◦ S and ~50◦ S, in good agreement with the results obtained by [17]
The South Atlantic mean sea level (SAMSL) trends are (2.91 ± 0.46) mm/yr and (2.73 ± 0.12) mm/yr for CMEMS and CSIRO, respectively. These non-seasonal SLA trends are not significantly different from the global value obtained from the ensemble of six altimetry datasets (3.1 ± 0.3 mm/yr [50])
Summary
In the context of climate change, the understanding of the physical drivers of sea level variability is crucial, on a global scale, and on a regional scale. This work aims to contribute to such understanding, focusing in the South Atlantic Ocean (Figure 1). Sea level rise has been estimated for the past, present and future. Long records of sea surface height (SSH) from different sources indicate that the global mean sea level (GMSL) increased 1.7 mm/yr from 1901 to 2010 [1]. From 1993 to 2015, satellite altimetry measurements showed a trend of 3.1 mm/yr [2]
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