Concepts and Terminology for Sea Level: Mean, Variability and Change, Both Local and Global

Jonathan M Gregory (1) , Stephen M Griffies (2) , Chris Hughes (3) , Jason Lowe (4) , John A Church (5) , Ichiro Fukimori (6) , Natalya Gomez (7) , Robert Kopp (8) , Felix Landerer (6) , Gonéri Le Cozannet (9) , Rui Ponte (10) , • Detlef Stammer (11) , Mark Tamisiea (12) , Roderik van de Wal (13)

1 National Centre for Atmospheric Science, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom
2 GFDL - NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory
3 Bangor University
4 MOHC - Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Change
5 UNSW - University of New South Wales [Sydney]
6 JPL - Jet Propulsion Laboratory
7 McGill University = Université McGill [Montréal, Canada]
8 Rutgers University [Camden]
9 BRGM - Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières (BRGM)
10 AER - Atmospheric and Environmental Research, Inc.
11 University of Hamburg
12 CSR - Center for Space Research [Austin]
13 University of Leeds

Changes in sea level lead to some of the most severe impacts of anthropogenic climate change. Consequently, they are a subject of great interest in both scientific research and public policy. This paper defines concepts and terminology associated with sea level and sea-level changes in order to facilitate progress in sea-level science, in which communication is sometimes hindered by inconsistent and unclear language. We identify key terms and clarify their physical and mathematical meanings, make links between concepts and across disciplines, draw distinctions where there is ambiguity, and propose new terminology where it is lacking or where existing terminology is confusing. We include for-mulae and diagrams to support the definitions.

Keywords: Concepts; Sea level; Terminology

Domains: Earth Sciences

Jonathan M Gregory, Stephen M Griffies, Chris Hughes, Jason Lowe, John A Church, et al.. Concepts and Terminology for Sea Level: Mean, Variability and Change, Both Local and Global. Surveys in Geophysics, 2019, ⟨10.1007/s10712-019-09525-z⟩. ⟨hal-02182687⟩