This month we highlight research using ECCO in a regional study of sea-level height in the eastern North Atlantic.

Reporting by Helen Hill for MITgcm

The paper “Peculiar Variations and Long-term Changes in Sea Level Observed in the Lanzarote Geosciences Laboratory (Canary Islands, Spain)” by M. Benavent et al., recently published in the journal Pure and Applied Geophysics, investigates the local short and long-term changes in sea level using tide gauge data from 2005 to 2023. The study focuses on understanding the impact of spatial and temporal climate variability on sea level changes in the region.

The researchers applied standard corrections for ocean tides, atmospheric dynamics, and interannual and seasonal variability to the observed time series. They used the maximal overlap discrete wavelet transform to decompose the sea level signal and studied its variations at multi-year to decadal scales. The study also explored correlations between sea level changes and climate indexes such as sea surface temperature, sunspot number, and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) using cross-wavelet and wavelet coherence methods. The researchers used the NTOL (non-tidal ocean loading) surface displacement series estimated from the ECCO2 (Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean Phase II, Menemenlis et al., 2008) model, which is distributed by the Ecole et Observatoire des Sciences de la Terre, Strasbourg, France.

One of the key findings of the study is the long-term linear trend of sea level increase, which was determined to be 0.33 ± 0.06 cm/yr. Additionally, the study found an increase of about 0.016 ± 0.003 cm/yr in GNSS-vertical displacement, indicating a rise in sea level and ground displacement over the study period.

This research highlights the importance of continuous monitoring and analysis of sea level changes to better understand the underlying processes and their potential impacts on coastal regions.

To find out more about this work​ contact Teresa Benavent Merchan

Story Image: a) Observed sea level at JA (Lanzarote), for the period 2005–2023. b) Extended range for the year 2021 showing observed tides. c) Observed sea level from a) after removing tides. The blue lines indicate the period from 20 February to 20 May 2022. d) Zoom on the last three years of c). e) Dynamic Atmospheric Correction (DAC) applied to observed sea level data.

About the Researchers

Co-authors (from left to right): José Arnoso (IGEO, CSIC-UCM), Mª Teresa Benavent (UCM), Emilio Vélez (IGEO, CSIC-UCM) and Fuensanta G. Montesinos (UCM). Members of the Geodesy Group of the University Complutense of Madrid.

 

This Month’s Featured Publication

Other New Publications last month

Ballarotta, M., Ubelmann, C., Bellemin-Laponnaz, V., Le Guillou, F., Meda, G., Anadon, C., Laloue, A., Delepoulle, A., Faugère, Y., Pujol, M.-I., Fablet, R., and Dibarboure, G. (2025), Integrating wide-swath altimetry data into Level-4 multi-mission maps, Ocean Sci., doi: 10.5194/os-21-63-2025

Bendinger, A., Cravatte, S., Gourdeau, L., Vic, C., and Lyard, F. (2025), Regional modeling of internal-tide dynamics around New Caledonia. Part 2: Tidal incoherence and implications for sea surface height observability, EGUsphere, doi: 10.5194/egusphere-2025-95

Cho, Ajin et al (2025), Dynamic and thermodynamic coupling between the atmosphere and ocean near the Kuroshio current and extension system, Ocean Modelling, doi: 10.1016/j.ocemod.2024.102496

Christensen, Katy (2024),  Observational Estimates of Ocean Energy from Argo Floats,  University of Washington ProQuest Dissertations & Theses,  2024, 31764738

Cui, Zijian et al (2025), Investigation of the influence of stratification and background currents on Internal Solitary Waves in the northern South China Sea based on the Wavefront model, Research Papers, doi: 10.1016/j.dsr.2025.104442

Gérard, J., Sablon, L., Huygh, J. J. C., Da Silva, A.-C., Pohl, A., Vérard, C., and Crucifix, M. (2025), Exploring the mechanisms of Devonian oceanic anoxia: impact of ocean dynamics, palaeogeography, and orbital forcing, Clim. Past, doi: 10.5194/cp-21-239-2025

Cora Hersh, Susan Wijffels, Geoffrey Gebbie, and Gaël Forget (2025), The long lives of subducted spice and vorticity anomalies in the subtropical oceans, Journal of Physical Oceanography, doi: 10.1175/JPO-D-24-0081.1

Chia-Ying Ho et al (2025), Tides enhance the intensity of upwelling and water temperature oscillations in the cold dome region off northeastern Taiwan, Estuarine, Coastal, and Shelf Sciences, doi: 10.1016/j.ecss.2025.109127

Huang, Shaojian et al (2025), Oceanic evasion fuels Arctic summertime rebound of atmospheric mercury and drives transport to Arctic terrestrial ecosystems, Nature Communications, doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-56300-3

Jiang, Wenrui and Thomas W N Haine (2025), Tracer Budgets on Lagrangian Trajectories, ESS OpenArchive, doi: 10.22541/essoar.173809754.43389047/v1

Olivier Marchal and Alan Condron (2025), On the Spreading of Glacial Meltwater in the western North Atlantic. Part I: Role of Dynamical Instabilities, Journal of Physical Oceanography, doi: 10.1175/JPO-D-23-0170.1

Mason, Hassan Caleb and K. Shafer Smith (2025), Beaufort Gyre isopycnal structure generates significant halocline eddy transport, ESS Open Archive, doi: 10.22541/essoar.173724500.00548969/v1

Alfonso Saiz-Lopez et al (2025), Role of the Stratosphere in the Global Mercury Cycle, Science Advances, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.ads1459

Shu, R et al (2025), Impact of Downwelling Favorable Winds on Eddy Formation in the West Greenland Current, Journal of Physical Oceanography, doi: 10.1175/JPO-D-24-0053.1

Yonghe Tian, Xiaolin Bai, Chuanyin Wang, Zhiyu Liu (2025), Tidal energetics in the eddying South China Sea from a high-resolution numerical simulation, Progress in Oceanography, doi: 10.1016/j.pocean.2025.103418

Tyka, M. D. (2025), Efficiency metrics for ocean alkalinity enhancements under responsive and prescribed atmospheric pCO2 conditions, Biogeosciences, doi: 10.5194/bg-22-341-2025

Wang, Youqi et al (2025), Pressure characteristics of two-dimensional topography in wave-induced seabed liquefaction, Physics of Fluids, doi: 10.1063/5.0250813

Xie, M., Wang, J.‐Z., Zhang, L., & Chen, Z. (2025), Exceptional equatorial extension of extreme Indian Ocean dipole cooling: Shaping effect from strong El Niño, Geophysical Research Letters, doi: 10.1029/2024GL112464

Tranchant Yann-Treden et al (2025), SWOT reveals fine-scale balanced motions and dispersion properties in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, via ESS Open Archive, doi: 10.22541/essoar.173655552.25945463/v1

Yao, L. et al (2025), Identifying ocean submesoscale activity from vertical density profiles using machine learning, Earth and Space Science, doi: 10.1029/2022EA002618

Zhu, Fangze and Brian E. J. Rose (2025), Unforced Millennial-Scale Oscillations in a Coupled Climate–Carbon System, Journal of Climate, doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-23-0762.1

Do you have news about research using MITgcm? We are looking for contributions to these pages. If you have an interesting MITgcm project (ocean, atmosphere, sea-ice, physics, biology or otherwise) that you want to tell people about, get in touch. To make a post, contact Helen