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Article

Observed Sea-Level Changes along the Norwegian Coast

by
Kristian Breili
1,2,*,
Matthew J. R. Simpson
1 and
Jan Even Øie Nilsen
3
1
Geodetic Institute, Norwegian Mapping Authority, NO-3507 Hønefoss, Norway
2
Faculty of Science and Technology, Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), NO-1432 Ås, Norway
3
Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center and Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, 5006 Bergen, Norway
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2017, 5(3), 29; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse5030029
Submission received: 31 May 2017 / Revised: 30 June 2017 / Accepted: 12 July 2017 / Published: 17 July 2017
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Coastal Sea Levels, Impacts and Adaptation)

Abstract

Norway’s national sea level observing system consists of an extensive array of tide gauges, permanent GNSS stations, and lines of repeated levelling. Here, we make use of this observation system to calculate relative sea-level rates and rates corrected for glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) along the Norwegian coast for three different periods, i.e., 1960 to 2010, 1984 to 2014, and 1993 to 2016. For all periods, the relative sea-level rates show considerable spatial variations that are largely due to differences in vertical land motion due to GIA. The variation is reduced by applying corrections for vertical land motion and associated gravitational effects on sea level. For 1960 to 2010 and 1984 to 2014, the coastal average GIA-corrected rates for Norway are 2.0 ± 0.6 mm/year and 2.2 ± 0.6 mm/year, respectively. This is close to the rate of global sea-level rise for the same periods. For the most recent period, 1993 to 2016, the GIA-corrected coastal average is 3.5 ± 0.6 mm/year and 3.2 ± 0.6 mm/year with and without inverse barometer (IB) corrections, respectively, which is significantly higher than for the two earlier periods. For 1993 to 2016, the coastal average IB-corrected rates show broad agreement with two independent sets of altimetry. This suggests that there is no systematic error in the vertical land motion corrections applied to the tide-gauge data. At the same time, altimetry does not capture the spatial variation identified in the tide-gauge records. This could be an effect of using altimetry observations off the coast instead of directly at each tide gauge. Finally, we note that, owing to natural variability in the climate system, our estimates are highly sensitive to the selected study period. For example, using a 30-year moving window, we find that the estimated rates may change by up to 1 mm/year when shifting the start epoch by only one year.
Keywords: sea-level change; glacial isostatic adjustment; tide gauges; altimetry sea-level change; glacial isostatic adjustment; tide gauges; altimetry

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Breili, K.; Simpson, M.J.R.; Nilsen, J.E.Ø. Observed Sea-Level Changes along the Norwegian Coast. J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2017, 5, 29. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse5030029

AMA Style

Breili K, Simpson MJR, Nilsen JEØ. Observed Sea-Level Changes along the Norwegian Coast. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering. 2017; 5(3):29. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse5030029

Chicago/Turabian Style

Breili, Kristian, Matthew J. R. Simpson, and Jan Even Øie Nilsen. 2017. "Observed Sea-Level Changes along the Norwegian Coast" Journal of Marine Science and Engineering 5, no. 3: 29. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse5030029

APA Style

Breili, K., Simpson, M. J. R., & Nilsen, J. E. Ø. (2017). Observed Sea-Level Changes along the Norwegian Coast. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, 5(3), 29. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse5030029

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