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- Title
Wind-Driven Coastal Sea Level Variability in the Northeast Pacific.
- Authors
Thompson, Philip R.; Merrifield, Mark A.; Wells, Judith R.; Chang, Chantel M.
- Abstract
The rate of coastal sea level change in the northeast Pacific (NEP) has decreased in recent decades. The relative contributions to the decreased rate from remote equatorial wind stress, local longshore wind stress, and local windstress curl are examined. Regressions of sea level onto wind stress time series and comparisons between NEP and Fremantle sea levels suggest that the decreased rate in the NEP is primarily due to oceanic adjustment to strengthened trade winds along the equatorial and coastal waveguides. When taking care to account for correlations between the various wind stress time series, the roles of longshore wind stress and local windstress curl are found to be of minor importance in comparison to equatorial forcing. The predictability of decadal sea level change rates along the NEP coastline is therefore largely determined by tropical variability. In addition, the importance of accounting for regional, wind-driven sea level variations when attempting to calculate accelerations in the long-term rate of sea level rise is demonstrated.
- Subjects
WAVEGUIDES; SEA level; ELECTRICAL conductors; OPTICAL dispersion; TRADE winds
- Publication
Journal of Climate, 2014, Vol 27, Issue 12, p4733
- ISSN
0894-8755
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1175/JCLI-D-13-00225.1