HR: 14:35h
AN: OS12B-04    [PDF]
TI: Contribution of Climate-Driven Change in Continental Water Storage to Recent Sea-Level Rise
AU: Milly, P
EM: cmilly@usgs.gov
AF: U. S. Geological Survey, GFDL/NOAA P. O. Box 308, Princeton, NJ 08542 United States
AU: * Cazenave, A
EM: anny.cazenave@cnes.fr
AF: Laboratoire d'Etudes en Geophysique et Oceanographie Spatiales, CNES, 18 avenue Edouard Belin 31401, Toulouse, cedex 4 France
AU: Gennero, M C
EM: marie-claude.gennero@cnes.fr
AF: Laboratoire d'Etudes en Geophysique et Oceanographie Spatiales, CNES, 18 avenue Edouard Belin 31401, Toulouse, cedex 4 France
AB: Using a global model of continental water balance, forced by interannual variations in precipitation and near-surface atmospheric temperature for the period 1981-1998, we estimate the sea-level changes associated with climate-driven changes in storage of water as snow pack, soil water, and ground water; storage in ice sheets and large lakes is not considered. The 1981-1998 trend is estimated to be 0.12 mm/yr, and substantial interannual fluctuations are inferred; for 1993-1998, the trend is 0.25 mm/yr. At the decadal time scale, the terrestrial contribution to eustatic (i.e., induced by mass exchange) sea-level rise is significantly smaller than the estimated steric (i.e., induced by density changes) trend for the same period, but is not negligibly small. In the model the sea level rise is driven mainly by a downtrend in continental precipitation during the study period, which we believe was generated by natural variability in the climate system.
DE: 1223 Ocean/Earth/atmosphere interactions (3339)
DE: 1635 Oceans (4203)
DE: 1836 Hydrologic budget (1655)
DE: 4556 Sea level variations
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting