The Role of Anthropogenic Forcings on Historical Sea-Level Change in the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool Region

Dhrubajyoti Samanta*, Vedant Vairagi, Kristin Richter, Elaine L. McDonagh, Kristopher B. Karnauskas, Nathalie F. Goodkin, Lock Yue Chew, Benjamin P. Horton

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications and ReviewsRGC 21 - Publication in refereed journalpeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)
1 Downloads (CityUHK Scholars)

Abstract

Detecting and attributing sea-level rise over different spatiotemporal scales is essential for low-lying and highly populated coastal regions. Using the Detection and Attribution Model Intercomparison Project (DAMIP) from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6, we evaluate the role of anthropogenic forcing in sea-level change in the historical (1950–2014) period in the Indo-Pacific warm pool region. We use three models that have at least 10 ensemble members, corresponding to different DAMIP simulations. We determined the changes in regional sea level from both natural and anthropogenic forcings. Our results demonstrate: (a) the emergence of an anthropogenic footprint on regional sterodynamic sea-level change has a large spatiotemporal diversity over the Indo-Pacific warm pool region with the earliest emergence in the western Indian Ocean; (b) a significant rise in dynamic sea level (DSL) (up to 25 mm) and thermosteric (up to 40 mm) sea level over the western Indian Ocean due to greenhouse gas forcing; (c) a positive Indian Ocean Dipole-like pattern in the DSL changes over the tropical Indian Ocean; (d) a significant increase in the halosteric contribution to sea-level rise in the Indo-Pacific warm pool region, and (e) a pronounced rise of manometric sea level (up to 20 mm) over shallow oceans and coastal regions in recent decades. These results provide a comprehensive spatiotemporal analysis of the attribution of anthropogenic factors to sea-level changes in the Indo-Pacific warm pool region. © 2024. The Authors. Earth's Future published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Geophysical Union.
Original languageEnglish
Article numbere2023EF003684
JournalEarth's Future
Volume12
Issue number3
Online published29 Feb 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2024
Externally publishedYes

Funding

DS acknowledges Justin Dauwels and Benjamin Grandey for useful discussions. We acknowledge the World Climate Research Programme, which, through its Working Group on Coupled Modeling, coordinated and promoted CMIP6. We thank the climate modeling groups for producing and making available their model output, the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) for archiving the data and providing access, and the multiple funding agencies that support CMIP6 and ESGF. Figures were created using Matlab 2022b and NCAR Command Language (version 6.6.2) [Software]. (2019). Boulder, Colorado: UCAR/NCAR/CISL/TDD. https://doi.org/10.5065/D6WD3XH5. This Research is supported by the National Research Foundation, Singapore, and National Environment Agency, Singapore under the National Sea level Programme Funding Initiative (Award No. USS-IF-2020-3). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not reflect the views of the National Research Foundation, Singapore, and the National Environment Agency, Singapore. This study was also supported by Singapore Ministry of Education (MOE) Academic Research Fund Tier 3 Project MOE-2019-T3-1-004 funded at Earth Observatory of Singapore. This is Earth Observatory of Singapore contribution number 520. KBK acknowledges funding support from the NASA Sea level Change Science Program, Award 80NSSC20K1123.

Research Keywords

  • attribution
  • climate change
  • CMIP6
  • DAMIP
  • Indo-Pacific warm pool
  • sea-level

Publisher's Copyright Statement

  • This full text is made available under CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

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