The Rate Of Sea-level Rise Is ‘Far Worse Than Previously Thought’, Study Says
Source: The Washington Post, article by Terrence McCoy
Water is seen on part of the glacial ice sheet that covers about 80 percent of Greenland. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Researchers have come up with a new and improved way of measuring the rise in the sea level, and the news is not good: The seas have risen dramatically faster over the last two decades than anyone had known.
For hundreds of years, the seas were measured by more or less the equivalent of plopping a yard stick into the ocean and seeing if the ocean went up or down. But now, that method looks to be outdated.
According to a new study published on Wednesday in Nature, the new method involves an advanced statistical model that analyzes all of the factors contributing to sea rise. It has yielded what appears to be a much more accurate picture of the oceans and suggests previous studies had severely underestimated the acceleration of recent sea rise.
“What this paper shows is that the sea-level acceleration over the past century has been greater than had been estimated by others,” lead writer Eric Morrow said in a statement. “It’s a larger problem than we initially thought.” Co-author Carling Hay added in an interview with BBC: “The acceleration into the last two decades is far worse than previously thought. This new acceleration is about 25 percent higher than previous estimates.”
Old sea measurements came to their conclusions by dividing the world’s oceans into sub regions. Then they determined the height of those regions with something called tide gauges — “essentially yard sticks used to measure ocean tides,” a release said. Then researchers would take those numbers, create estimates for each region, and average them out to come to a global estimate.
But that system was rife with problems. “These simple averages aren’t representative of a true global mean value,” Hay said in a statement. “Tide gauges are located along coasts, therefore large areas of the ocean aren’t being included in these estimates. And the records that do exist commonly have large gaps.” The tide gauges were unevenly distributed, or just skipped whole sections of the planet. Only the United States and Europe were measuring the oceans for decades. Then there was the issue of tectonic activity, which would suddenly cause a rise or fall in local sea levels, and skewed the numbers.
So the scientists realized they needed a whole new method. Soon, they arrived at what they call a “completely new perspective.”
“We know the sea level is changing for a variety of reasons,” Hay said. “There are ongoing effects due to the last ice age, heating and expansion of the ocean due to global warming, changes in ocean circulation, and present-day melting of land-ice, all of which result in unique patterns of sea-level change. These processes combine to produce the observed global mean sea-level rise.”
So they had all the puzzle pieces. Now they just needed to put them together.
To do so, the researchers looked for what they called “fingerprints” and “underlying patterns,” putting each factor through advanced statistical models to determine a more accurate sum figure. “What we were interested in — and remain interested in — was whether we can detect the sea-level fingerprints we predicted in our computer simulations in sea-level records,” Morrow said. “Using a global set of observations, our goal has been to infer how individual ice sheets are contributing to global sea-level rise.”
So they took the sum of those contributions from the ice sheets, and added in the rate for how much oceans are rising because of thermal expansion due to global warming to determine a “global mean of sea-level change.” And what that mean ultimately showed was that the rate of sea-level rise has increased much more dramatically than earlier estimates. “Unfortunately,” Hay said, it “is really much larger than anyone thought.”
Source: The Washington Post, article by Terrence McCoy
6 Responses
Without doubt I see and am disgusted with the global cabals and their lust for power. I have been lucky to spend my life at the oceans edge in Southern California. As did my mother and my grandparents. It is my life. I have been surfing for over forty five years and am well aware of the tides, seasons, and the ever changing nature of the sea.
What I haven’t seen is rising sea levels. The reefs I surf are tide sensitive (that is that waves will only break with certain water depth over them) They rise completely out of the water at low tide and are completely covered at high tide. I am not an oceanographer, however I would think that rising sea levels would rise equally over the entire globe. I have heard that certain Island groups are going under, not because the ocean floor is dropping but because of water levels rising. If this is true wouldn’t low lying coastal areas everywhere experience this? What about areas like London and New York? Could some one explain this to me?
I am very vocal to others about geo engineering and the negative effects. When I am questioned as to my source I like to present my doubters with irrefutable proof. I have a chart that I keep with me that shows daily ocean temps from October 2014 through present that I present to non believers to prove that water temps have not dropped into the fifties yet and prior to Christmas only into the low sixties on a few days. Ocean temps are about six to nine degrees higher than normal. Not once in my surfing life have ocean temps been this warm in the dead of winter. In fact Rarely this warm in summer.
Hello Ono, sea levels do not rise uniformly around the globe, see the attached link. http://www.dw.de/sea-level-does-not-rise-uniformly-across-the-globe/a-4555709
increasing Sea-level rise seems to be connected with the Artic meltdown. if the Artic ice is melting at this high speed and releasing more methane ,then it increases the global warming wich generates more dark water or ice in the liquid state and less reflectivity and more water…so…it(this study/measurement) seems to make all the sense spite of perhaphs some other factor not mentioned (as usual) as geoengeneering (specially SAG,SRM or haarp ).And to the global warming denials and “the ice” defenders ,with all due respect :Why should the sea-level be rising more 25% than the expected if many people are expecting an Ice Age to come or say global warming is a hoax? they say :”never had such cold weather or much snow storms” so their conclusion is that the planet is cooling and that global warming is a hoax.Maybe geoengineers could put all the ice of the Artic in Eastern USA and Europe(creating an ice Age) and to keep it (the water in ice form) there very quiet and maybe to slow or delay the “Giant wave” sea-level rise because of the Artic melt down -I´m just kidding !…if that was possible probably we would be a kind of Atlantida from the night to day but not before they were safe in their underground cities/bunkers …they seem to be building their “Noah´s ark” for some kind of collapse we are not informed and never will be i guess !we just can guess of so suspicious underground “moovements” and of such global high scale programme of covering our skies,in fact “contrails”(as they cal it) now are our “cloud makers” cause seems our world no longer has the chance to produce natural clouds or if it produces they are too insignificant,what can we expect except a colapse of a sick world being manipulated and abused at this level ?they were playing all along with all our life suport system(our planet) since they were no longer “cave” men but became “technology men”…for sure they must have the “key” information needed and that might be the reason why nobody oficially seems to dare to recognize geoengeneering as a reality in our planet!(not even recognized leading scientists ).these scientists can not claim ignorance cause they are men of studies and many on Clima area of study! No way ! i don´t buy it!how could they not know?they have to be the first to know it!…Probably they just prefer to be by the side of the leading majoraty of the world than by the side of reason and honesty-honesty can bring them problems!and very few have the courage needed to help to save this world from the Ultimate disaster…
A friend from Maryland just posted this on another page (same article) – “Off the Coast of Maryland the Islands have been going under for many decades………….Many with great history will soon no longer support life…….(Smith Island) still inhabited…..others near have chimneys sticking up,,with gravestones…
We had a Lighthouse near the Naval Base you could easily walk to in the 50-60 era……..Now we boat around what is left……”
I am aware of these changes. How do we make people understand.
Our climate is changing. Too bad the geoengineering terrorists are accelerating it towards human extinction. Those criminals need to be put away.