The tilt of mean sea level along the east coast of North America

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Abstract
The tilt of mean sea level along the North American east coast has been a subject of debate for many decades. Improvements in geoid and ocean circulation models, and GPS positioning of tide gauge benchmarks, provide an opportunity to produce new tilt estimates. Tilts estimated using tide gauge measurements referenced to high-resolution geoid models (the geodetic approach) and ocean circulation models (the ocean approach) are compared. The geodetic estimates are broadly similar, with tilts downwards to the north through the Florida Straits and at Cape Hatteras. Estimates from the ocean approach show good agreement with the geodetic estimates, indicating a convergence of the two approaches and resolving the long standing debate as to the sign ofthe tilt. These tilts differ from those used by Yin and Goddard [2013] to support a link between changing ocean circulation and coastal sea level rise.
Year of Publication
2015
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
Number of Pages
n/a - n/a
Date Published
02/2015
DOI
10.1002/2015GL063186
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