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What dominates sea level at the coast: a case study for the Gulf of Guinea

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Abstract

Sea level variations and extreme events are a major threat for coastal zones. This threat is expected to worsen with time because low-lying coastal areas are expected to become more vulnerable to flooding and land loss as sea level rises in response to climate change. Sea level variations in the coastal ocean result from a combination of different processes that act at different spatial and temporal scales. In this study, the relative importance of processes causing coastal sea level variability at different time-scales is evaluated. Contributions from the altimetry-derived sea-level (including the sea level rise due to the ocean warming and land ice loss in response to climate change), dynamical atmospheric forcing induced sea level (surges), wave-induced run-up and set-up, and astronomical tides are estimated from observational datasets and reanalyses. As these processes impact the coast differently, evaluating their importance is essential for assessment of the local coastline vulnerability. A case study is developed in the Gulf of Guinea over the 1993–2012 period. The leading contributors to sea level variability off Cotonou differ depending on the time-scales considered. The trend is largely dominated by processes included in altimetric data and to a lesser extent by swell-waves run-up. The latter dominates interannual variations. Swell-waves run-up and tides dominate subannual variability. Extreme events are due to the conjunction of high tides and large swell run-up, exhibiting a clear seasonal cycle with more events in boreal summer and a trend mostly related to the trend in altimetric-derived sea-level.

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Acknowledgments

The altimeter products were produced by Ssalto/Duacs. The altimeter products and the dynamic atmospheric corrections are distributed by AVISO, with support from CNES (http://www.aviso.altimetry.fr/). Dynamic atmospheric corrections are produced by CLS Space Oceanography Division using the Mog2D model from LEGOS. The authors thank Florent Lyard for providing the tidal predictions off Cotonou of FES2014. Tide gauge data were downloaded from the University of Hawaii Sea Level Center (http://uhslc.soest.hawaii.edu).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. LEGOS, Université de Toulouse, CNES, CNRS, IRD, UPS, Toulouse, France

    Angélique Melet, Rafael Almar & Benoit Meyssignac

  2. Mercator-Ocean, Ramonville St. Agne, France

    Angélique Melet

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  1. Angélique Melet
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  2. Rafael Almar
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Correspondence to Angélique Melet.

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Melet, A., Almar, R. & Meyssignac, B. What dominates sea level at the coast: a case study for the Gulf of Guinea. Ocean Dynamics 66, 623–636 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-016-0942-2

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