Contribution of ice sheet and mountain glacier melt to recent sea level rise
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Material Information

Title:
Contribution of ice sheet and mountain glacier melt to recent sea level rise
Series Title:
Nature Geoscience Volume 6
Creator:
Chen, J.L.
Wilson, C.R.
Tapley, B.D.
Publisher:
Macmillan Publishers Limited
Publication Date:
Language:
English

Subjects

Subjects / Keywords:
Climate Change ( lcsh )
Sea Level Rise ( lcsh )
Ice Sheets ( lcsh )
Glaciers ( lcsh )

Notes

Abstract:
Changes in global mean sea level primarily reflect the sum of three contributions: water mass changes in the oceans, water density changes, and variations in the volume of the ocean basins. Satellite altimetry data1–4 suggest that sea level rose by about 2:39 [plus or minus]0:48mmyr􀀀1 between 2005 and 2011. However, previous estimates5–9 of sea level rise from density and ocean mass changeswere lower than the altimeter data indicate. Here we show that the gap in the sea level budget disappears when we combine gravity data from the GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellite mission and temperature and salinity observations from the Argo programme collected between 2005 and 2011. The Argo data indicate a densitydriven sea level rise of 0:60[plus or minus]0:27mmyr-1 throughout this period. To estimate ocean mass change from the gravity data, we developed a forward modelling technique that reduces the bleeding of terrestrial signals into the ocean data. Our reassessment suggests an ocean mass contribution of 1:80[plus or minus] 0:47mmyr-1, for a total sea level rise of 2:40[plus or minus]0:54mmyr-1, in agreement with the altimeter-based estimates. On the basis of the GRACE data, we conclude that most of the change in ocean mass is caused by the melting of polar ice sheets and mountain glaciers. This contribution of ice melt is larger than previous estimates10, but agrees with reports11–13 of accelerated ice melt in recent years. ( English )

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Florida International University
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