Long-Term Sea Level Periodicities over the European Seas from Altimetry and Tide Gauge Data

• Published in: Remote Sensing
• Main Authors: Ferdous Zid, Maria Isabel Vigo, Juan A. Vargas-Alemañy, David García-García
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2024
• Subjects: sea level; long-term variability; altimetry data; tide gauge data; NAO; AMO; Science; Q; North Atlantic; North Atlantic oscillation
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16162931; https://doaj.org/article/63dbc97f055f41269f4d9dc84f3575d5

This study investigates the long-term temporal patterns of sea level changes by analyzing monthly tide gauge data from 1950 to 2022 (42 to 72 years) along the European coastline and monthly altimetry data from 1992 to 2024 in the surrounding European seas. The primary focus is on signals with periods longer than 5 years. The application of wavelet-based approaches and multiresolution analysis has enabled the isolation of signals with periods of approximately 8 and 16 years. However, the latter has only been observed in tide gauge data, as the altimetry time series is not sufficiently long. The same analysis was applied to the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) indices, which enabled the detection of the same signals. The reported multiyear signals of sea level are correlated with NAO and AMO indices, particularly during the period spanning from 1975 to 2010.