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Recent developments in understanding sea level rise at the Adriatic coasts

Recent developments in understanding sea level rise at the Adriatic coasts
Recent developments in understanding sea level rise at the Adriatic coasts
Sea level observations from tide-gauge records located at the Adriatic coasts are analysed. The estimated sea level trends show variability in time and space. Spatial variability is assessed by estimating the differential trends by reference to Trieste. For many of the stations the differential trends become smaller than the corresponding error bars. This indicates that the land, atmospheric and oceanic contributors to sea level change are, at long scales, uniform in the basin.

Observed trends in the longer records differ significantly for the periods before 1960 and after 1960. Atmospheric forcing has been a significant contribution in sea level variability for the period 1960 onwards. The atmospheric trends account for ?0.8 mm/year for the period 1960–2000. No significant atmospheric trends appear to be present at the period 1900–1960. Changes in the atmospheric forcing alone are not capable of explaining fully the difference in the sea level trends for the periods before and after 1960.

Steric trends for the period 1960–2000 have also been identified. Their magnitude depends on the depth used for their estimation. Steric trends range between ?0.4 mm/year for the upper 100 m to ?2.4 mm/year for the whole water column. The residual sea level after the removal of atmospheric and steric effects ranges between 2 and 3.4 mm/year at various stations with an associated error bar of 1 mm/year. This residual must be accounted for by land movements and incoming signals through the strait of Otranto.

The coherence of high frequency sea level signals in the north part of the Adriatic Sea is also analysed for the period 2002–2005 using eight tide gauges. The first empirical orthogonal function contains 71% of the variability indicating that the known coherency at inter-annual and inter-decadal scales extends partly to the higher frequency too.
Adriatic Sea, Sea level, Trends, Regional oceanography
1474-7065
59-71
Tsimplis, M.N.
df6dd749-cda4-46ec-983c-bf022d737031
Raicich, F.
3c451c3e-4a1b-441c-a13b-8d28ee4fdd3b
Fenoglio-Marc, L.
25b35821-95ba-43bc-a5cd-6a027de36b6b
Shaw, A.G.P.
4afa8737-18d4-4c88-98a4-55572fb51562
Marcos, M.
3cd7a6cd-def3-47a9-a7c4-7ef305fc0bf1
Somot, S.
158166ef-e3d4-4e18-8f70-5a72212d521b
Bergamasco, A.
6ebc0af6-b9fd-44cc-a2f7-d3700c9bb9cf
Tsimplis, M.N.
df6dd749-cda4-46ec-983c-bf022d737031
Raicich, F.
3c451c3e-4a1b-441c-a13b-8d28ee4fdd3b
Fenoglio-Marc, L.
25b35821-95ba-43bc-a5cd-6a027de36b6b
Shaw, A.G.P.
4afa8737-18d4-4c88-98a4-55572fb51562
Marcos, M.
3cd7a6cd-def3-47a9-a7c4-7ef305fc0bf1
Somot, S.
158166ef-e3d4-4e18-8f70-5a72212d521b
Bergamasco, A.
6ebc0af6-b9fd-44cc-a2f7-d3700c9bb9cf

Tsimplis, M.N., Raicich, F., Fenoglio-Marc, L., Shaw, A.G.P., Marcos, M., Somot, S. and Bergamasco, A. (2012) Recent developments in understanding sea level rise at the Adriatic coasts. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts A, B and C, 40-41, 59-71. (doi:10.1016/j.pce.2009.11.007).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Sea level observations from tide-gauge records located at the Adriatic coasts are analysed. The estimated sea level trends show variability in time and space. Spatial variability is assessed by estimating the differential trends by reference to Trieste. For many of the stations the differential trends become smaller than the corresponding error bars. This indicates that the land, atmospheric and oceanic contributors to sea level change are, at long scales, uniform in the basin.

Observed trends in the longer records differ significantly for the periods before 1960 and after 1960. Atmospheric forcing has been a significant contribution in sea level variability for the period 1960 onwards. The atmospheric trends account for ?0.8 mm/year for the period 1960–2000. No significant atmospheric trends appear to be present at the period 1900–1960. Changes in the atmospheric forcing alone are not capable of explaining fully the difference in the sea level trends for the periods before and after 1960.

Steric trends for the period 1960–2000 have also been identified. Their magnitude depends on the depth used for their estimation. Steric trends range between ?0.4 mm/year for the upper 100 m to ?2.4 mm/year for the whole water column. The residual sea level after the removal of atmospheric and steric effects ranges between 2 and 3.4 mm/year at various stations with an associated error bar of 1 mm/year. This residual must be accounted for by land movements and incoming signals through the strait of Otranto.

The coherence of high frequency sea level signals in the north part of the Adriatic Sea is also analysed for the period 2002–2005 using eight tide gauges. The first empirical orthogonal function contains 71% of the variability indicating that the known coherency at inter-annual and inter-decadal scales extends partly to the higher frequency too.

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More information

Published date: 2012
Keywords: Adriatic Sea, Sea level, Trends, Regional oceanography
Organisations: Marine Physics and Ocean Climate

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 159725
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/159725
ISSN: 1474-7065
PURE UUID: 88bc76f6-fccd-4238-8b6d-5dc24a779aff

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Date deposited: 05 Jul 2010 16:05
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 01:54

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Contributors

Author: M.N. Tsimplis
Author: F. Raicich
Author: L. Fenoglio-Marc
Author: A.G.P. Shaw
Author: M. Marcos
Author: S. Somot
Author: A. Bergamasco

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