Mediterranean sea level trends: atmospheric pressure and wind contribution

The 9 longest tide-gauge records in the Mediterranean Sea are compared with the output of a barotropic model forced by atmospheric pressure and wind. Between 1958 and 2001 the tide-gauges indicate sea level trends of −0.4 to 0.7 mm/yr. During the same period the model shows sea level reduction of −0...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical Research Letters
Main Authors: Tsimplis, M.N., Alvarez-Fanjul, E., Gomis, D., Fenoglio-Marc, L., Perez, B.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: 2005
Subjects:
Online Access:http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/119172/
http://www.agu.org/journals/gl/gl0520/2005GL023867
https://doi.org/10.1029/2005GL023867
Description
Summary:The 9 longest tide-gauge records in the Mediterranean Sea are compared with the output of a barotropic model forced by atmospheric pressure and wind. Between 1958 and 2001 the tide-gauges indicate sea level trends of −0.4 to 0.7 mm/yr. During the same period the model shows sea level reduction of −0.4 to −0.7 mm/yr linked with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). After the removal of the meteorological influence from the sea level records the resulting trends are ~0.3 ± 0.4 mm/yr at the western Mediterranean and ~1.3 ± 0.4 mm/yr at the eastern Mediterranean. The eastern basin is strongly affected by rapid sea level rise in the period 1993–2001 with rates of 5–10 mm/yr which are probably related to the Eastern Mediterranean Transient (EMT).