Iris Keizer and Dewi Le Bars, from the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, Research & Development (KNMI), will present their latest work on the wind influence on sea level along the Dutch coast at the European Geosciences Union (EGU) Conference 2022.
Sea level scenarios were developed as part of the work carried out within the Coastal Infrastructure sector of RECEIPT. These scenarios will be the basis of storylines illustrating how the melt of Antarctica could impact the European coast in the coming 100 years. To relate the long-term sea level observations from tide gauges along the coast and future scenarios, and to know which scenario is to be followed closely, it is important to understand the main drivers of sea level variability. Therefore, our researchers studied the wind influence on multi-decadal variability and trend of sea level in the North Sea.
Keizer and Le Bars found a multi-decadal mode of variability with an amplitude of around 1 cm and a period of 40 to 60 years and showed that it is following the Atlantic Multidecadal Variability. The Atlantic Multidecadal Variability is a slow change in sea surface temperature of the North Atlantic. This opens the way for some potential decadal predictability of the rate of sea level rise. Also, this multi-decadal wind variability is responsible for an average drop in sea level along the Dutch coast over the last 40 years. Therefore, the study shows that wind effects on sea level partly masked sea level acceleration at the Dutch coast.
The work will be presented at EGU on Thursday 26 May at the session Understanding sea level changes: global to local, from past to future.
Published on : 04 May 2022