Ukrainian Antarctic Journal

No 1(18) (2019): Ukrainian Antarctic Journal
Articles

Long-term variations of the sea level on the western coast of the Antarctic Peninsula

PDF
  • V. Maderich,
  • K. Terletska,
  • I. Brovchenko,
  • D. Pishniak
V. Maderich
Institute of Mathematical Machine and System Problems, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 42 Acad. Glushkov Ave., Kyiv, 03187, Ukraine
K. Terletska
Institute of Mathematical Machine and System Problems, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 42 Acad. Glushkov Ave., Kyiv, 03187, Ukraine
I. Brovchenko
Institute of Mathematical Machine and System Problems, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 42 Acad. Glushkov Ave., Kyiv, 03187, Ukraine
D. Pishniak
State Institution National Antarctic Scientific Center, Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, 16, Taras Shevchenko Blvd., Kyiv, 01601, Ukraine
DOI: https://doi.org/10.33275/1727-7485.1(18).2019.134
Published December 13, 2019
Keywords
  • Antarctic Peninsula,
  • Faraday/Akademik Vernadsky station,
  • sea level,
  • long-term variations,
  • wavelet analysis
How to Cite
Maderich, V., Terletska, K., Brovchenko, I., & Pishniak, D. (2019). Long-term variations of the sea level on the western coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. Ukrainian Antarctic Journal, (1(18), 93-102. https://doi.org/10.33275/1727-7485.1(18).2019.134
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Abstract

The aim of the study is to analyze seasonal and interannual changes in sea level on the western coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. Objects of study are seasonal and interannual variability of sea level, air temperature, pressure at sea level, precipitation in the period 1960–2018 at the Faraday/Akademik Vernadsky station, which was considered as representative site for the Antarctic Peninsula. Statistical methods of study were used, including estimates of linear trends of time series using the nonparametric Sen’s estimator of slope. The Mann-Kendall test was used to assess the significance of the slope of the trend. Time variability analysis was performed using wavelet analysis. Using the MATrix LABoratory (MATLAB) software package, squared of wavelet coefficients were calculated depending on the scale and shift or scalograms that characterize the local energy spectrum, and scalegrams calculated by averaging the scalograms by time shifts. The Morlet wavelet transformations were used. The results of the calculations showed that the trend of sea level at the Faraday/ Akademik Vernadsky station in the period 1960—2018, according to observations and correction on glacial isostatic adjustment of the crust is in the range from 3.05 to 3.45 mm/year, which is significantly higher than the global trend of 2.1 mm/year. Sea level scalograms allow estimating time-averaged periods and amplitudes of the coefficients for each season. In the austral winter and spring characteristic periods were 4—6 years, whereas the summer and autumn periods are characterized by 6–8 years, as well as by the highest amplitudes of the coefficients. All seasons are characterized by the appearance of a weakly pronounced period of about 4 years. The presence of peaks in the scalegrams at 6–8 and 3–4 years confirms the relationship of atmospheric and oceanic processes in West Antarctica to the natural variations of the ocean-atmosphere system, such as the Southern Annular Mode and El Niño-Southern Oscillation, which varies with typical 3–4 and 6–8 year periods. It was concluded that, unlike air temperature, the sea level trend is relatively weakly depends on the season, with the exception of autumn, when sea level trend is three times smaller than the average value. At the same time, the air temperature trend is the largest in the austral winter and the lowest in the summer.

PDF

References

  1. Belevich, R.R., Burov, A.M., Neverovsky, I.P., Skipa, M.I. 2007/2008. On seasonal and interannual oscillations of the level of the world ocean on the Antarctica coast, and also about possible role of melting ice in its increase. Ukrainian Antarctic Journal, 1, 79-89.
  2. Church, J.A., Woodworth, P.L., Aarup, T., Wilson, W.S. (eds). 2010. Understanding Sea-Level Rise and Variability. Wiley-Blackwell. 427. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444323276
  3. CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation). 2015 update to data originally published in: Church, J.A., and N.J. White. 2011. Sealevel rise from the late 19th to the early 21st century. Surv. Geophys. 32, 585-602. www.cmar.csiro.au/sealevel/sl_data_cmar.html (accessed: 12.08.2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10712-011-9119-1
  4. Clem, K. R., Fogt, R. L. 2013. Varying roles of ENSO and SAM on the Antarctic Peninsula climate in austral spring. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 118, 11,481-11,492. https://doi.org/10.1002/jgrd.50860
  5. EPA (Environment Protection Agency). 2018. Climate Change Indicators: Sea Level. https://www.epa.gov/climateindicators/climate-change-indicators-sea-level#ref4 (accessed: 12.08.2019).
  6. Galassi, G., Spada, G. 2017. Tide gauge observations in Antarctica (1958-2014) and recent ice loss. Antarctic Science, 29(4), 369-381. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954102016000729
  7. Holgate, S.J., Matthews, A., Woodworth, P.L., Rickards, L.J., Tamisiea, M.J., Bradshaw, E., Foden, P.F., Gordon, K.M, Jevrejeva, S., Pugh, J. 2013. New Data Systems and Products at the Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level. Journal of Coastal Research, 29. 493-504. https://doi.org/10.2112/JCOASTRES-D-12-00175.1
  8. Hughes, C. W., Woodworth P. L., Meredith, M. P., Stepanov, V., Whitworth, T., Pyne, A. R. 2003. Coherence of Antarctic sea levels, Southern Hemisphere Annular Mode, and flow through Drake Passage. Geophysical Research Letters, 30, 1464. https://doi.org/10.1029/2003GL017240
  9. Kendall, M.G. 1970. Rank correlation methods. Griffin: London.
  10. Kravchenko, V.O., Evtushevsky, O.M., Grytsai, A.V., Milinevsky, G.P. 2011. Decadal variability of winter temperatures in the Antarctic Peninsula region. Antarctic Science, 23(6), 614-622. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954102011000423
  11. Li, X., E. P. Gerber, D. M. Holland, Yoo, C. 2015. A Rossby wave bridge from the tropical Atlantic to West Antarctica. J. Climate, 28, 2256-2273. doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-14-00450.1. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-14-00450.1
  12. Mann, H.B. 1945. Nonparametric tests against trend. Econometrica, 13 245-259. https://doi.org/10.2307/1907187
  13. Marshall, G.J. 2003. Trends in the Southern Annular Mode from observations and reanalyses. Journal of Climate, 16, 4134-4143. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0442(2003)016<4134:TITSAM>2.0.CO;2
  14. MATLAB. 2019. https://se.mathworks.com/help/wavelet/time-frequency-analysis.html (accessed: 12.08.2019).
  15. Meredith, M.P., King, J.C. 2005. Rapid climate change in the ocean west of the Antarctic Peninsula during the second half of the 20th century. Geophysical Research Letters, 32, L19604. https://doi.org/10.1029/2005GL024042
  16. Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level (PSMSL), 2019, "Tide Gauge Data", http://www.psmsl.org/data/obtaining/ (accessed: 12.08.2019).
  17. Peltier, W., Argus, D., Drummond, R. 2015. Space geodesy constrains ice age terminal deglaciation: the global ICE-6GC(VM5a) model. Journal of Geophysical Research - Solid Earth, 120, 450-487. https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JB011176
  18. Rye, C.D., Naveira Garabato, A.C., Holland, P.R., Meredith, M.P., George Nurser, A.J., Hughes, C.W., Coward, A.C., Webb, D.J. 2014. Rapid sea-level rise along the Antarctic margins in response to increased glacial discharge. Nat. Geosci., 7:732-5. doi:10.1038/ ngeo2230. https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2230
  19. Sen, P.K. 1968. Estimates of the regression coefficient based on Kendall's tau. J. Am. Stat. Assoc., 63, 1379-1389. https://doi.org/10.1080/01621459.1968.10480934
  20. Scargle, J. D. 1997. Wavelet and other multi-resolution methods for time series analysis. In Babu, G. J., Feigelson, E. D. (eds). Statistical Challenges in Modern Astronomy II. 333-347. N.Y. Springer-Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-1968-2_19
  21. Stastna, V. 2010. Spatio-temporal changes in surface air temperature in the region of the northern Antarctic Peninsula and south Shetland islands during 1950-2003. Polar Science, 4, 18-33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polar.2010.02.001
  22. Torrence, C., Compo, G.P. 1998. A practical guide to wavelet analysis. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 79, 61-78. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0477(1998)079<0061:APGTWA>2.0.CO;2
  23. Turner, J. 2004. The El Niño-Southern Oscillation and Antarctica. Int. J. Climatol., 24, 1-31. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.965
  24. Turner, J., Lu, H., White, I., King, J. C., Phillips, T., Hosking, J. S., Bracegirdle, T.G., Marshall, G., Mulvaney, R., Deb, P. 2016. Absence of 21st century warming on Antarctic Peninsula consistent with natural variability. Nature, 535, 411-415. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature18645
  25. Tymofeyev, V.E. 2013. Multi-years' changes in the air temperature at the Antarctic Peninsula and the possible reasons. Proceedings of Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Research Institute, 264, 9-17.
  26. Vaughan, D.G., Marshall, G.J., Connolley, W.M., Parkinson, C., Mulvaney, R., Hodgson, D.A., King, J.C., Pudsey, C.J., Turner, J. 2003. Recent rapid regional climate warming on the Antarctic Peninsula. Climatic Change, 60, 243-274. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026021217991
  27. Whitehouse, P.L., Bentley, M.J., Milne, G.A., King, M.A., Thomas, I.D. 2012. A new glacial isostatic adjustment model for Antarctica: calibrated and tested using observations of relative sea level change and present-day up lift rates. Geophysical Journal International, 190, 1464-1482. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246X.2012.05557.x
  28. Woodworth, P.L., Hughes, C.W., Blackman, D.L., Stepanov, V.N., Holgate, S.J., Foden. P.R., Pugh, J.P., Mack, S., Hargreaves, G.W., Meredith, M.P., Milinevsky, G., Fierro Contreras, J.J.. 2006. Antarctic Peninsula sea levels: a real-time system for monitoring Drake Passage transport. Antarctic Science, 18 (3), 429-436. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954102006000472