Abstract
Data derived from altimetry shows that since 1993 the mean sea level over the East /Japan (EJS) Sea is increasing at a rate of ~3 mm/year, but tide gauge records indicate that a multidecadal reversal trend occurred prior to the early 1980s. We here characterize and quantify the multi-decadal trend of mean sea level in the EJS from the reconstructed sea levels and the in-situ ocean profiles over the past 60 years. Our analysis shows that sea level trends have undergone a shift, revealing a declining trend before the early 1980s, followed by a rising trend from the early 1980s onward with a near basin-wide sea level fluctuation. The trend reversal strongly corresponds to changes in the upper-ocean heat content over the EJS, revealing a negative correlation with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) index that correlates negatively with wind stress curl (WSC) in the subtropical North Pacific. The PDO-related WSC, which changes the transport of the western boundary current in the subtropical gyre, may account for the observed trend reversal in the EJS sea level on a multi-decadal time scale.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Antonov JI, Levitus S, Boyer TP (2005) Thermosteric sea level rise, 1955–2003. Geophys Res Lett 32:L12602. doi:10.1029/2005GL023112
Bromirski PD, Miller AJ, Flick RE, Auad G (2011) Dynamical suppression of sea level rise along the Pacific coast of North America: indications for imminent acceleration. J Geophys Res 116:C07005. doi:10.1029/2010JC006759
Cazenave A, Llovel W (2010) Contemporary sea level rise. Ann Rev Mar Sci 2:145–173
Chambers D, Merrifield M, Nerem RS (2012) Is there a 60-year oscillation in global mean sea level? Geophys Res Lett 39: L18607. doi:10.1029/2012GL052885
Carton J, Giese B (2008) A reanalysis of ocean climate using Simple Ocean Data Assimilation (SODA). Mon Weather Rev 136: 2999–3017
Chang KI, Teague WJ, Lyu SJ, Perkins HT, Lee DK, Watts DR, Kim YB, Mitchell DA, Lee CM, Kim K (2004) Circulation and currents in the southwestern East/Japan Sea: overview and review. Prog Oceanogr 61:105–106
Choi BJ, Haidvogel DB, Cho YK (2004) Nonseasonal sea level variations in the Japan/East Sea from satellite altimeter data. J Geophys Res 109:C12028. doi:10.1029/2004JC002387
Feng M, Li Y, Meyers G (2004) Multidecadal variations of Fremantle sea level: footprint of climate variability in the tropical Pacific. Geophys Res Lett 31:L16302. doi:10.1029/2004GL019947
Feng M, McPhaden MJ, Lee T (2010) Decadal variability of the Pacific subtropical cells and their influence on the southeast Indian Ocean. Geophys Res Lett 37:L09606. doi:10.1029/2010GL042796
Feng M, Böning C, Biastoch A, Behrens E, Weller E, Masumoto Y (2011) The reversal of the multi-decadal trends of the equatorial Pacific easterly wind, and the Indonesian Throughflow and Leeuwin Current transports. Geophys Res Lett 38:L11604. doi:10.1029/2011GL047291
Gordon AL, Giulivi CF (2004) Pacific decadal oscillation and sea level in the Japan/East sea. Deep-Sea Res Pt I 51:653–663
Graham NE (1995) Simulation of recent global temperature trends. Science 267:666–671
Hamlington BD, Leben RR, Nerem RS, Han W, Kim KY (2011) Reconstruction sea level using cyclostationary empirical orthogonal functions. J Geophys Res 116:C12015. doi:10.1029/2011JC007529
Hamlington BD, Leben RR, Strassburg MW, Nerem RS, Kim KY (2013) Contribution of the Pacific Oscillation to global mean sea level trends. Geophys Res Lett 40:1–5
Hirose N, Ostrovskii AG (2000) Quasi-biennial variability in the Japan Sea. J Geophys Res 105(C6):14011–14027
Hong CH, Cho KD, Kim HJ (2001) The relationship between ENSO events and sea surface temperature in the East (Japan) Sea. Prog Oceanogr 49(1):21–40
Ishii M, Kimoto M (2009) Reevaluation of historical ocean heat content variations with time-varying XBT and MBT depth bias corrections. J Oceanogr 65:287–299
Kalnay E, Kanamitsu M, Kistler R, Collins W, Deaven D, Gandin L, Iredell M, Saha S, White G, Woollen J, Zhu Y, Leetmaa A, Reynolds R, Chelliah M, Ebisuzaki W, Higgins W, Janowiak J, Mo KC, Ropelewski C, Wang J, Jenne R, Joseph D (1996) The NCEP/NCAR, 40-year reanalysis project. B Am Meteorol Soc 77:437–471
Kang SK, Cherniawsky JY, Foreman MGG, Min HS, Kim CH, Kang HW (2005) Patterns of recent sea level rise in the East/Japan Sea from satellite altimetry and in situ data. J Geophys Res 110:C07002. doi:10.1029/2004JC002565
Kim KY, North GR, Huang J (1996) EOFs of one-dimensional cyclostationary time series: computations, examples, and stochastic modeling. J Atmos Sci 53:1007–1017
Kim K, Cho YK, Choi BJ, Kim YG, Beardsley RC (2002) Sea level variability at Ulleung Island in the East (Japan) Sea. J Geophys Res 107(C3). doi:10.1029/2001JC000895
Kim SB, Fukumori I (2008) A near uniform basin-wide sea level fluctuation over the Japan/East Sea: A semienclosed sea with multiple strait. J Geophys. Res 113:C06031. doi:10.1029/2007JC004409
Lee T, McPhaden MJ (2008) Decadal phase change in large-scale sea level and winds in the Indo-Pacific region at the end of the 20th century. Geophys Res Lett 35:L01605. doi:10.1029/2007GL032419
Levitus S, Antonov JI, Boyer TP, Locarnini RA, Garcia HE, Mishonov AV (2009) Global ocean heat content 1955.2008 in light of recently revealed instrumentation problems. Geophys Res Lett 36:L07608. doi:10.1029/2007GL032419
Llovel W, Cazenave A, Rogel P, Lombard A, Nguyen MB (2009) Two-dimensional reconstruction of past sea level (1950–2003) from tide gauge data and an Ocean General Circulation Model. Clim Past 5:217–227.
Na H, Kim KY, Chang KI, Park JJ, Kim K, Minobe S (2012) Decadal variability of the upper ocean heat content in the East/Japan Sea and its possible relationship to northwestern Pacific variability. J Geophys Res 117:C02017. doi:10.1029/2011JC007369
Meyssignac B, Melia DS, Becker M, Llovel W, Cazenave A (2012) Tropical Pacific spatial trend patterns in observed sea level: internal variability and/or anthropogenic signature? Clim Past 8:787–802
Merrifield MA (2011) A shift in western tropical Pacific sea-level trends during the 1990s. J Climate 24:4126–4138
Merrifield MA, Thompson PR, Lander M (2012) Multidecadal sea level anomalies and trends in the western tropical Pacific. Geophys Res Lett 39:L13602. doi:10.1029/2012GL052032
Moon JH, Song YT (2013) Sea level and heat content changes in the western North Pacific. J Geophys Res 118:2014–2022
Moon JH, Song YT, Bromirski P, Miller AJ (2013) Multidecadal regional sea level shifts in the Pacific over 1958–2008. J Geophys Res 118. doi:10.1002/2013JC009297
Park WS, Oh IS (2000) Interannual and interdecadal variations of sea surface temperature in the East Asian Marginal Sea. Prog Oceanogr 47:191–204
Penduff T, Juza M, Brodeau L, Smith G, Barnier B, Molines J, Treguier A, Madec G (2010) Impact of global ocean model resolution on sea-level variability with emphasis on interannual time scales. Ocean Sci 6:269–284
Qiu B, Chen S (2012) Multdecadal sea level gyre circulation vriability in the Northwestern tropical Pacific Ocean. J Phys Oceanogr 42:193–206
Trenberth KE (1990) Recent observed decadal climate changes in the Northern Hemisphere. B Am Meteorol Soc 71:988–993
Timmermann A, McGregor S, Jin FF (2010) Wind effects on past and future regional sea-level trends in the southern Indo-Pacific. J Climate 23:4429–4437
Woodworth PL, Menendez M, Gehrels WR (2011) Evidence for century-timescale acceleration in mean sea levels and for recent changes in extreme sea level. Surv Geophys 32:603–618
Yu JY, Liu WT, Mechoso CR (2000) The SST anomaly dipole in the Northern Subtropical Pacific and its relationship with ENSO. Geophys Res Lett 27:1931–1934
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Moon, JH., Lee, J. Shifts in multi-decadal sea level trends in the East/Japan Sea over the past 60 years. Ocean Sci. J. 51, 87–96 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12601-016-0008-x
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12601-016-0008-x