Sea levels around Barbados from tide gauges and satellite altimetry

Abstract

Like many of the small island states of the Caribbean, mean sea level on Barbados was initially established using a short term data set, and this served the purpose of marine navigation. In the 70 years since sea levels were first observed, a number of other measurement series have been made for different purposes. Sea level is now a concern for coastal vulnerability. Data that have been acquired over the years is now brought together with some recent observations to investigate the trend. Discrepancies in the datum that have been used are identified, and further work is undertaken to investigate the cause of variations in sea level that are seen to occur beyond normal tidal and meteorological influence. Satellite altimetry is used with recently acquired data from a tide gauge to show that eddies formed in the Atlantic Ocean can change sea levels around Barbados by up to 0·3 m. Comparative results obtained using tide gauge data and satellite altimetry confirm mean sea level and seasonal variation. Results suggest that integration of these techniques is ideally suited to determining variations in sea level around small island states.