Contribution of Land water stOrage to Sea-level Rise

Project Information

CLOSeR

Grant agreement ID: 841407

DOI

10.3030/841407

Project closed

EC signature date 11 April 2019

Start date 1 July 2019

End date 30 June 2021

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 224 933,76

EU contribution

€ 224 933,76

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CLOSeR (Contribution of Land water stOrage to Sea-level Rise)

Reporting period: 2019-07-01 to 2021-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Sea-level rise is one of the most dreadful consequences of future climate change. To estimate the associated risk and prepare ourselves better for its implications, we need to identify the spatiotemporal characteristics of the contributors to sea level change. Out of all the contributors, land water storage change is the most debated one because studies so far do not even agree on its sign. In the framework of CLOSeR (Contribution of Land water stOrage to Sea-level Rise), I will estimate the spatiotemporal characteristic of contribution from land water storage to sea-level rise between 2002 and 2020, in a robust statistical framework called BHM (Bayesian Hierarchical Modelling) with the help of: 1) multi-mission satellite altimetry data over oceans 2) a new data-driven leakage corrected GRACE product 3) steric information from ARGO floats and 4) a novel data-driven GIA model. I will develop a data-driven leakage corrected GRACE product for global applications, develop a BHM to solve for land water storage contribution while closing the sea-level budget, and identify the regions that contribute significantly to sea-level rise. The approach is unique, global in scale, and will address a multi-disciplinary problem comprehensively.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

I have been able to process latest GRACE gravity field products and have developed tools to map the response of sea level to temporal changes in the gravity field of the Earth, commonly known as Sea Level Fingerprints. They represent the spatial distribution of sea level rise due to mass redistribution. We can clearly see that ice mas loss in Greenland and East Antarctica leads to a drop in relative sea level near these regions, while rest of the oceans is observing a rise in relative sea surface heights (see the attached figure).

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

will estimate the spatiotemporal characteristic of contribution from land water storage to sea-level rise between 2002 and 2020, in a robust statistical framework called BHM (Bayesian Hierarchical Modelling) with the help of: 1) multi-mission satellite altimetry data over oceans 2) a new data-driven leakage corrected GRACE product 3) steric information from ARGO floats and 4) a novel data-driven GIA model.

Sea level figerprints due to mass redistribution bwteen 2002 and 2017.