Uncertainty in satellite estimates of global mean sea-level changes, trend and acceleration

Ablain, Michaël; Meyssignac, Benoît; Zawadzki, Lionel; Jugier, Rémi; Ribes, Aurélien; Spada, Giorgio; Benveniste, Jerôme; Cazenave, Anny; Picot, Nicolas

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-11-1189-2019

Articles | Volume 11, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-11-1189-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-11-1189-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 11, issue 3

Data description paper

|

07 Aug 2019

Data description paper |

| 07 Aug 2019

Uncertainty in satellite estimates of global mean sea-level changes, trend and acceleration

Michaël Ablain, Benoît Meyssignac, Lionel Zawadzki, Rémi Jugier, Aurélien Ribes, Giorgio Spada, Jerôme Benveniste, Anny Cazenave, and Nicolas Picot

Data sets

Error variance-covariance matrix of global mean sea level estimated from satellite altimetry (TOPEX, Jason 1, Jason 2, Jason 3) M. Ablain, B. Meyssignac, L. Zawadzki, R. Jugier, A. Ribes, A. Cazenave, and N. Picot https://doi.org/10.17882/58344

Short summary

A description of the uncertainties in the Global Mean Sea Level (GMSL) record has been performed; 25 years of satellite altimetry data were used to estimate the error variance–covariance matrix for the GMSL record to derive its confidence envelope. Then a least square approach was used to estimate the GMSL trend and acceleration uncertainties over any time periods. A GMSL trend of 3.35 ± 0.4 mm/yr and a GMSL acceleration of 0.12 ± 0.07 mm/yr² have been found within a 90 % confidence level.