The causes of the sea level trend in the Southwestern Atlantic Continental Shelf

MELINA GISEL RIOS; LAURA A. RUIZ ETCHEVERRY

Congreso; 2022 Ocean Surface Topography Science Team Meeting; 2022

CNES, ESA

In the last decades, several studies have detected a global sea level rise, and it was associated mainly to two factors related to global warming: mass changes due to the transfer of water between continental ice and oceans, and sea-water density changes due to the increasing temperature. However, little is known about these effects in the Southwestern Atlantic Continental Shelf (SWACF). Thus, the objective of this work is to study the role of mass change and density change in the SWACF using 26-year of satellite data and model data. First, we validated the sea level anomaly (SLA) from ORAS5.0 (Ocean Reanalysis System 5) with gridded altimetry data from CMEMS (Copernicus Marine and Environmental Monitoring Service) for the matching period obtaining a significant correlation > 0.6 in the whole SWACF. Then, we computed the steric height due to density changes derived from model temperature and salinity and estimated the mass change has the difference between steric height and SLA. The results were promising since we obtained a correlation > 0.8 between model mass change and GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) at interannual scales. The analysis of sea level trend in the SWACF and its components revealed that the interannual SLA is increasing about 2.37 mm/yr (ORAS5.0) and 3.37 mm/yr (satellite) and the cause of this rising is mainly explained by the mass change. For completion of this study, we will also analyze GLORYS (Global Ocean Reanalysis and Simulation) reanalysis model and altimetry SLA from ESA-CCI (European Space Agency – Climate Change Iniciative).