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Sea level rise refers to the rise in the ocean surface as a result of climate change. Rising sea levels can cause significant impacts for infrastructure, coastal communities and wildlife across the globe, and it is clear that a combined approach, implementing both mitigation and adaptation measures, is necessary to avoid the worst of these impacts. Understanding the changes in sea level – what causes them, why, and how quickly they occur, is imperative if we are to adopt the most effective solutions. During August we have explored this topic through a series of blog posts.
Met Office experts Dr Helene Hewitt OBE and Dr Matt Palmer along with Dr Svetlana Jevrejeva, Principal Research Scientist at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), commented in this first blog post. Dr Hewitt said, “Oceans are continuing to warm, ice is melting and sea level is rising. Many of these changes will not stop immediately if we reduce emissions but they can be slowed down and crucially, we will limit the risk of rapid ice loss from Antarctica which otherwise could lead to additional metres of sea level rise over the coming centuries.”
The Met Office climate dashboard provides a comprehensive way to stay up to date on the current state of the climate by providing data based on observations of key global climate indicators, one of which is sea level rise. Nick Rayner, who leads the Met Office’s Climate Monitoring team said of the dashboard, “Observations from coastal tide gauges show sea levels rose by nearly 200mm between 1900 and 2000. However, by building in projections of sea level rise linked to different scenarios for future greenhouse gas emissions, you can easily see what we are already committed to and the need for urgent action to minimise further changes.”
Met Office Applied Climate Scientist Rachel Perks looks at the extreme impacts of sea level rise in her recent blog post. The UK Climate Projections 2018 (UKCP18) found that the main driver for projected changes in extreme sea levels is changes to the mean sea level. However, changes in tides, storm surges and waves can also play a substantial role in projections of future sea level extremes at local scales.
On Tuesday 6 September at 4pm we will be hosting a Twitter Spaces live conversation on this topic. Met Office meteorologist and presenter Alex Deakin will be speaking with a number of scientists about their work on sea level rise. Follow @metoffice to listen to their conversation which will also be available on-demand following the event.
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