Print Email Facebook Twitter Seasonal variations in sea level induced by continental water mass: First results from GRACE Title Seasonal variations in sea level induced by continental water mass: First results from GRACE Author Wouters, B. Riva, R.E.M. Lavallée, D.A. Bamber, J.L. Faculty Aerospace Engineering Department Remote Sensing Date 2011-02-04 Abstract Variations in the Earth's water cycle are commonly quantified by their effect on global mean sea?level. However, the interaction between passive adjustment of the ocean to changes in gravitational attraction due to mass redistribution, the related deformation of the solid Earth and disturbances in the Earth's rotation vector will yield a distribution that is more complicated than a uniform rise or fall of the ocean's surface. In this study, we present the first estimates of seasonal changes in passive sea?level (which we define as the height difference between the sea surface at rest and ocean floor, excluding steric and dynamical effects) based on direct observations of surface mass redistribution, made by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) between 2003 and 2010. We show that this “selfgravitation?effect” causes seasonal variations of the sea?level of up to 1 cm – comparable to the amplitude of the long?period tides – and that inclusion in numerical ocean models results in a better agreement between observed and modelled ocean bottom pressure variations, particularly in coastal zones. Subject GRACEseasonal sea-level variationshydrologyocean modeling To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:5841e271-c21d-489b-a2c2-d2438d9f0d91 DOI https://doi.org/10.1029/2010GL046128 Publisher American Geophysical Union Embargo date 2011-08-04 ISSN 0094-8276 Source Geophysical Research Letters, 38, 2011 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights (c) 2011 The Author(s)American Geophysical Union Files PDF Riva_2011.pdf 1.58 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:5841e271-c21d-489b-a2c2-d2438d9f0d91/datastream/OBJ/view