New research uncovers key culprit behind accelerating global threat: ‘An increasingly dominant role’

Scientists have confirmed just how much of an impact melting ice and ocean warming have had on rising sea levels around the globe.

What’s happening?

In a new study first published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of researchers revealed that utilizing long-term monitoring of barystatic sea level changes is “essential for understanding the present-day global mean sea level rise.”

The scientists used satellite laser ranging to measure changes in Earth’s gravity field, which allowed them the chance to track how much water was being added to the oceans over time. They discovered that from 1993 to 2022, barystatic sea level change was driven by the addition of water mass from melting ice and thermal expansion due to rising temperatures.

When they combined the effects of warming oceans and added water, the team calculated that sea levels rose by 3.16 millimeters per year. This aligned with the direct satellite measurements of sea level rise at 3.22 millimeters per year. On average, the global mean sea level has risen by three millimeters per year.

Why is a rise in the global mean sea level important?

Dr. Jianli Chen, a world-renowned expert in space geodesy and co-author of the study, noted that the team’s research indicated an alarming trend when it came to sea level rise.

“In recent decades, climate warming has led to accelerated land ice loss, which has played an increasingly dominant role in driving global sea-level rise,” Chen told Phys.org.

Sea level rise has already begun to wreak havoc on coastal communities around the world.  With increased coastal flooding from more frequent high tides and more intense storm surges, communities have seen an uptick in infrastructure damage. This is combined with land loss through erosion and the salinization of freshwater supplies.

“The research showed that the ocean mass changes derived from SLR analysis align well with the total sea level changes observed by satellite altimeters, after accounting for the effect of ocean thermal expansion,” said Dr. Yufeng Nie, a research assistant professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and co-author of the study.

“This demonstrates that the traditional SLR technique can now serve as a novel and powerful tool for long-term climate change studies.”

What’s being done about sea level rise?

For now, many efforts to address sea level rise have focused on mitigation, especially the attempt to reduce gas pollution, a leading cause of increased global temperatures. With initiatives like the Paris Agreement, more countries are striving to cut back on their reliance on planet-heating dirty fuels and take advantage of renewable energy resources instead.

According to Chen, the research into GMSL rise can prove to be invaluable for global leaders attempting to prepare for the future.

“Our research enables the direct quantification of global ocean mass increase and provides a comprehensive assessment of its long-term impact on sea-level budget,” added Chen. “This offers crucial data for validating coupled climate models used to project future sea-level rise scenarios.”

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