Sea Level Rise Speeds Up due to Global Warming, Recent Research Reveals
While the sea level is already rising, the rate at which it is rising every year is also accelerating.
Using satellite data from 1993 to 2014, researchers have observed that sea levels have increased by seven centimeters in 25 years. While the data match with the generally accepted sea level rise of about 3 millimeters a year, it has been discovered that the rate is not constant, thanks to global warming that speeds up the rate of sea level increase.
"This acceleration, driven mainly by accelerated melting in Greenland and Antarctica, has the potential to double the total sea level rise by 2100 as compared to projections that assume a constant rate, to more than 60 centimeters instead of about 30," said Steve Nerem, a University of Colorado-Boulder professor of aerospace engineering sciences and leader of the research team.
Nerem and his team's projection also matches with climate models used in the latest International Panel on Climate Change report, stating that the sea will have an increase between 52 and 98 centimeters by 2100. As if a sea level rise of 65 centimeters were not enough to deliver negative impacts on coastal cities around the world, things can get even worse during high tides or storm surges.
The research has revealed that roughly 55 percent out of the 7.5cm rise in the past 25 years was primarily due to warmer water that has been expanding and the rest can be attributed to melting ice. According to Penn State climate scientist Michael Mann, who was not involved in Nerem's study, if the ice sheet instability in Greenland and Antarctica continues to experience rapid changes, the devastating effects of the rise in sea level may happen sooner than forecasted.
"It confirms what we have long feared: that the sooner-than-expected ice loss from the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets is leading to an acceleration in sea level rise sooner than was projected," Mann said.
