Definitions
Mean sea level (MSL). An oceanographic term, referring to sea surface level, possibly averaged over an area or a period of time, but with short-period variations such as waves filtered out.
Monthly mean sea level. Average sea surface level, usually at a single location, preferably taken over an integer number of tidal cycles, averaged over a period of about one calendar month.
Global mean sea level. Average sea level, averaged over all sea areas.
Sea level change. Referring to the long-term trend in mean sea level, which may be calculated from a single location or across a region. One can distinguish between absolute sea level change and relative (to the local land level) sea level change.
Projection. Extrapolation to what would happen under given starting conditions, for given changes and given physical assumptions. Climate change projections are often expressed relative to a particular time period, presently usually 1961–1990.
Introduction
The sea surface is constantly...
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Bibliography
Church, J. A., and White, N. J., 2011. Sea-level rise from the late 19th to the early 21st Century. Surveys in Geophysics, 32, 585–602.
Dyurgerov, M., and Meier, M. F. 2005. Glaciers and the changing earth system: a 2004 snapshot. Boulder, CO: Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado. Occasional Paper 58, 118Â pp.
Gornitz, V., 2009. Sea level change, post-glacial. In Gornitz, V. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Paleoclimatology and Ancient Environments. Dordrecht: Springer. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series, pp. 887–893.
Horton, R., Herweijer, C., Rosenzweig, C., Liu, J., Gornitz, V., and Ruane, A. C., 2008. Sea level rise projections for current generation CGCMs based on the semi-empirical method. Geophysical Research Letters, 35, L02715, doi:10.1029/2007/GL032486.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2001. Climate change 2001: IPCC third assessment report: working group I. The scientific basis. Web published by GRID Arendal in 2003. http://www.grida.no/publications/other/ipcc_tar/.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2007. Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis: Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC. Solomon, S., Qin, D., Manning, M., Marquis, M., Averyt, K., Tignor, M. M. B., Miller, H. L., and Chen, Z. (eds.) Cambridge, UK/New York: Cambridge University Press, 996 pp. http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/ar4-wg1.htm.
Ishii, M., Kimoto, M., Sakamoto, K., and Iwasaki, S. I., 2006. Steric sea level changes estimated from historical ocean subsurface temperature and salinity analyses. Journal of Oceanography, 62(2), 155–170.
Jevrejeva, S., Moore, J. C., and Grinsted, A., 2010. How will sea level respond to changes in natural and anthropogenic forcings by 2100. Geophysical Research Letters, 37, 5Â pp.
Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level. http://www.psmsl.org.
Pfeffer, W. T., Harper, J. T., and O’Neel, S., 2008. Kinematic constraints on glacier contributions to 21st century sea level rise. Science, 321, 1340–1343.
PIANC, 2008. Waterborne transport, ports and waterways: a review of climate change drivers, impacts, responses and mitigation. Report of PIANC EnviCom Task Group 3, Climate change and navigation, PIANC, Brussels, Belgium.
Rahmstorf, S., 2007. A semi-empirical approach to projecting future sea level rise. Science, 315, 368–370.
University of Colorado Sea level Research Group. http://sealevel.colorado.edu/.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this entry
Cite this entry
Hawkes, P.J. (2013). Sea Level Change. In: Bobrowsky, P.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Natural Hazards. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4399-4_309
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4399-4_309
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-8699-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4020-4399-4
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences