Sea level along the world's coastlines can be measured by a network of virtual altimetry stations

• Published in: Communications Earth & Environment
• Main Authors: Cazenave, Anny, Gouzenes, Yvan, Birol, Florence, Leger, Fabien, Passaro, Marcello, Calafat, Francisco M., Shaw, Andrew, Nino, Fernando, Legeais, Jean François, Oelsmann, Julius, Restano, Marco, Benveniste, Jérôme
• Other Authors: Laboratoire d'études en Géophysique et océanographie spatiales (LEGOS), Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP), Université de Toulouse (UT)-Université de Toulouse (UT)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Météo-France-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Collecte Localisation Satellites Toulouse (CLS), Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2022
• Subjects: [SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]; Indian; Northeast Atlantic
• Online Access: https://insu.hal.science/insu-03867901; https://insu.hal.science/insu-03867901/document; https://insu.hal.science/insu-03867901/file/s43247-022-00448-z.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-022-00448-z

International audience For nearly 30 years, space-based radar altimetry has been routinely measuring changes in sea level at global and regional scales. But this technique designed for the open ocean does not provide reliable sea level data within 20 km to the coast, mostly due to land contamination within the radar echo in the vicinity of the coast. This problem can now be overcome through dedicated reprocessing, allowing the retrieval of valid sea level data in the 0-20 km band from the coast, and then the access to novel information on sea level change in the world coastal zones. Here we present sea level anomalies and associated coastal sea level trends at 756 altimetry-based virtual coastal stations located along the coasts of North and South America, Northeast Atlantic, Mediterranean Sea, Africa, North Indian Ocean, Asia and Australia. This new dataset, derived from the reprocessing of high-resolution (300 m) along-track altimetry data from the Jason-1, 2 and 3 missions from January 2002 to December 2019, allows the analysis of the decadal evolution of coastal sea level and fills the coastal gap where sparse sea level information is currently available.