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Is the Sea Level Stable at Aden, Yemen?

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Abstract

Background

The sea level records since the start of the twentieth century show oscillations with many periodicities up to multi-decadal. The sea level may then change because of local factors such as subsidence or uplift, and global factors such as mass addition and thermal expansion of the oceans.

Purpose

We use non-aligned data from the tide gauges of Aden, and the tide gauges of Mumbai and Karachi, to reconstruct the most likely pattern of sea levels for these three locations of the west Indian Ocean.

Methods

Linear and parabolic fittings of monthly average mean sea levels (MSL) from the different tide gauges of the three locations were carried out. Alignment of the different data sets based on historical information, similarity of patterns, and break point alignment was done.

Results

Analysis of the tide gauge data of Aden, Yemen shows that without arbitrary alignment of data, Aden exhibits very stable sea level conditions like those in Mumbai, India and Karachi, Pakistan, without any significant sea level trend.

Conclusion

The reconstructed tide gauge records of Aden, Mumbai and Karachi are perfectly consistent with multiple lines of evidence from other key sites of the Indian Ocean including Qatar, Maldives, Bangladesh and Visakhapatnam. The sea levels have been stable since the start of the twentieth century in Aden similar to Karachi and Mumbai.

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Authors

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Correspondence to Albert Parker.

Electronic supplementary material

Appendix—different versions of the Aden, Mumbai, and Karachi 471 composite records

Appendix—different versions of the Aden, Mumbai, and Karachi 471 composite records

See Figs. 5, 6, 7 and 8.

Fig. 5
figure 5

Prior description of the sea-level patterns in Aden, Karachi and Mumbai. Image from Unnikrishnan (2007). The picture presents the tide gauge records (red) of Aden and Karachi, plus Kandla and Kochi compared with the Mumbai record (blue). These are annual and not monthly mean sea levels. The data were version n-2 of a single-tide gauge record from PSMSL

Fig. 6
figure 6

Sea-level trend in Aden, Yemen per: a NOAA with data version n–1 of a single-tide gauge record from PSMSL (image from NOAA (2017b) downloaded on September 13, 2017). b Sealevel.info with data the latest version of a single-tide gauge record from PSMSL (image from Sealevel.info (2017b) downloaded on September 13, 2017)

Fig. 7
figure 7

Motivation of latest PSMSL description of the sea-level pattern in Aden and Mumbai. Image from PSMSL (2016). This is the extended annual data from Aden, overlaid on the corrected Mumbai data from this study, showing higher correlation than prior to the latest corrections. A relative vertical land motion difference of − 0.3 mm/year has been added to the Aden record

Fig. 8
figure 8

a Sea-level trend in Mumbai, India per Sealevel.info based on version n by PSMSL (image from Sealevel.info (2017c), downloaded on September 13, 2017). b Sea-level trend in Karachi, Pakistan per Sealevel.info based on version n by PSMSL (image from Sealevel.info (2017d) downloaded on September 13, 2017)

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Parker, A., Ollier, C.D. Is the Sea Level Stable at Aden, Yemen?. Earth Syst Environ 1, 18 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41748-017-0020-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41748-017-0020-z

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