On Sea Level Variability, Climate Factors, Trends and Attribution
Abstract
Property, commerce and ecosystem assets across the planet are located at or near the coast, thus are vulnerable to sea level variability and rise. Sea level variability along the boundaries of the ocean basins are critical. We consider eleven relatively long continuous coastal water level time series from open ocean coastal stations around the globe, along with the satellite altimeter time series. The sea level time series are analyzed for internal frequency and amplitude modulated modes of variability and overall trends. Additionally, climate factors related to oceanic and atmospheric heat purveyors and reservoirs are analyzed in-kind. The results confirm that oceanic and atmospheric temperature variability and the disposition of heat accumulation, display complimentary internal modes of temporal variability to those of sea level variability on monthly to annual to inter-annual to decadal and multi-decadal time scales. For future prognostications of coastal and inland inundations of oceanic waters, and for the interactive coupling of coastal to inshore water systems and compound flooding, the coastal-downstream boundary conditions must be prognosticated based upon climate and weather relationships. This is an effort to reveal those relationships. Finally a causal relationship between sea level rises globally to fossil fuel burning, is established within.
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Copyright (c) 2023 Leonard J. Pietrafesa, Shaowu Bao, Satish Kumar, Paul T. Gayes, Thomas Karl, Hongyuan Zhang, Tasnia Rahman, Juliana Kowal
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