《Mean Sea Level Changes near Weizhou Island from 1969 to 2010》.pdfVIP

J. Ocean Univ. China (Oceanic and Coastal Sea Research) DOI 10.1007/s11802-014-2001-2 ISSN 1672-5182, 2014 13 (3): 369-374 /xbywb/ E-mail:xbywb@ Mean Sea Level Changes near Weizhou Island from 1969 to 2010 ZHENG Zhaoyong1), 2), LI Guangxue1), *, TANG Chaolian2), and ZHOU Xiong2) 1) College of Marine Geosciences, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, P. R. China 2) South China Sea Branch, State Oceanic Administration (SOA), Guangzhou 510300, P. R. China (Received April 4, 2012; revised November 26, 2012; accepted October 28, 2013) © Ocean University of China, Science Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014 Abstract Tidal data from Weizhou, Zhapo, and Shanwei stations between 1969 and 2010 and from five gauging stations in the western Pacific Ocean provided by PSMSL, and the global mean sea level data recorded between December 1992 and December 2010 by TOPEX and Jason satellites were compiled and analyzed. The results show that the perennial mean sea level near Weizhou Island is 211.7 cm (relative to the water gauge zero), and the relative mean sea level rising rate is 2.2 mm yr−1 from 1969 to 2010, which is consistent with the relative mean sea level rising rate recorded at other gauging stations in the western Pacific regions and −1 with the global mean sea level rising rate. The absolute mean sea level rising rate at Weizhou Island is 3.0 mm yr from 1993 to 2010, also conforming with the global mean sea level rising rate (3.1±0.4 mm yr−1) during the same time period. The highest annual tide level at Weizhou Island has a rising rate of 4.6 mm yr−1 and shows a 20-year quasi-periodic variation from 1966 to 2010. The primary cause of the mean sea level rising is global warming. Key words climatology; mean sea level change; global climate change; Weizhou Island