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Sea Level Rise During Past 40 Years Determined from Satellite and in Situ Observations
Cecile Cabanes,Anny Cazenave,Christian Le Provost
The 3.2 ± 0.2 millimeter per year global mean sea level rise
observed by the Topex/Poseidon satellite over 1993-98 is fullyexplained by thermal expansion of the oceans. For the period 1955-96,sea level rise derived from tide gauge data agrees well with thermalexpansion computed at the same locations. However, we find thatsubsampling the thermosteric sea level at usual tide gauge positionsleads to a thermosteric sea level rise twice as large as the "true"global mean. As a possible consequence, the 20th century sea levelrise
estimated from tide gauge records may have been overestimated.
Laboratoire d'Etudes en Géophysique et Océanographic
Spatiales, Centre Nationale d'Etudes Spatiales, 18 Avenue Edouard
Belin, Toulouse 31400, France.
