Satellite Data Show Sea Level Rise Rate Increased Around 2012

Satellite measurements indicate that the rate of global sea level rise increased around 2012 and has remained higher since. 1 millimetres per year afterward. 2 metres over the past 15 years. This rise results from melting mountain glaciers and the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica, plus thermal expansion of warming oceans.

Leclercq at the University of Toulouse stated that the jump may reflect natural variation or a response to faster global warming. The team’s analysis points to multiple contributing factors rather than a single cause. Since around 2010, the planet’s warming rate has increased, driven in part by declining aerosol pollution from countries such as China.

Aerosols have a cooling effect, and their reduction allows more of the warming from carbon dioxide to take effect. Anny Cazenave, also at the University of Toulouse, said the trend change around 2012 appears linked to an increase in anthropogenic radiative forcing from lower aerosol emissions.

The findings were published earlier this year.

Another study presented at the European Geosciences Union meeting in Vienna on 5 May suggests that ocean waters deeper than 2 kilometres have begun to warm and expand over the past decade. This process could add to the observed acceleration. Chunxue Yang at the National Research Council in Italy reported that before 2016, known factors accounted for the full observed sea level rise.

Since then, a gap has appeared that models attribute to warming below 2 kilometres. 4 mm per year to sea level rise, accounting for roughly 10 per cent of the total. U.S. East Coast.