The long sea level record at Cadiz (southern Spain) from 1880 to 2009

Mean sea level observations from an historical tide gauge located in Cadiz (Southern Spain) spanning the period 1880–1924 were recovered from national archives. Daily sea level averages stored in handwritten log books were digitized, quality controlled, and referred to the same benchmark. A careful...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of Geophysical Research Vol. 116; no. C12
Main Authors Marcos, Marta, Puyol, Bernat, Wöppelmann, Guy, Herrero, Carmen, García-Fernández, M. Jesús
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Washington Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.12.2011
Wiley-Blackwell
Subjects
Climate change
Earth
Earth Sciences
Geophysics
Global positioning systems
GPS
historical observations
leveling
Marine
Ocean, Atmosphere
Physical oceanography
Sciences of the Universe
Sea level
Sea level rise
sea level trends
seasonal cycle
sea level change
Cadix
tide gauge
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Summary:Mean sea level observations from an historical tide gauge located in Cadiz (Southern Spain) spanning the period 1880–1924 were recovered from national archives. Daily sea level averages stored in handwritten log books were digitized, quality controlled, and referred to the same benchmark. A careful analysis of all the high precision leveling surveys available in the area of the tide gauge enabled the establishment of a common datum with a modern record starting in 1961 from another tide gauge located only 2.5 km apart, with accuracy better than 5 mm. As a result, a consistent daily mean sea level record from 1880 to 2009 was constructed. The 20th century relative mean sea level rise in Cadiz is 0.7 ± 0.1 mm yr−1, which becomes 1.0 ± 0.2 mm yr−1 once corrected for vertical land movement with high precision GPS data, in agreement with nearby records. The analysis of the seasonal sea level cycle indicated that the amplitude of the annual cycle has increased during the 20th century. This work evidences the significance of sea level data rescue for present‐day climate research. Key Points Archived historical sea level data were recovered A composite time series longer than 100 yrs was built using leveling information Sea level trends are consistent among nearby records in southern Spain
Bibliography:Tab-delimited Table 1.Tab-delimited Table 2.Tab-delimited Table 3.
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Ministry of Science and Innovation - No. 00
ArticleID:2011JC007558
ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:0148-0227
2169-9275
2156-2202
2169-9291
DOI:10.1029/2011JC007558