Estimates of the Regional Distribution of Sea Level Rise over the 1950–2000 Period

TOPEX/Poseidon satellite altimeter data are used to estimate global empirical orthogonal functions that are then combined with historical tide gauge data to estimate monthly distributions of large-scale sea level vafiability and change over the period 1950-2000. The reconstruction is an attempt to narrow the current broad range of sea level rise estimates, to identify any pattern of regional sea level rise, and to determine any variation in the rate of sea level rise over the 51-yr period. The computed rate of global-averaged sea level rise from the reconstructed monthly time series is 1.8 0.3 mm yr -1. With the decadal variability in the computed global mean sea level, it is not possible to detect a…