WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Global average sea level rose by about 0.3 inches (0.76 centimeters) from 2022 to 2023, according to a NASA-led study.
The reason for this phenomenon is mostly a warming climate and the development of a strong El Nino, says the analysis, based on a sea level dataset featuring more than 30 years of satellite observations.
The data shows that global average sea level has risen a total of about 4 inches since 1993. The rate of this increase has also accelerated, more than doubling from 0.07 inches per year in 1993 to the current rate of 0.17 inches per year.
'Current rates of acceleration mean that we are on track to add another 20 centimeters of global mean sea level by 2050,' which could increase the frequency and impacts of floods across the world, said Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer, director for the NASA sea level change team and the ocean physics program in Washington.
Global sea level saw a significant rise from 2022 to 2023 due mainly to a switch between La Nina and El Nino conditions. A mild La Nina from 2021 to 2022 resulted in a lower-than-expected rise in sea level that year. A strong El Nino developed in 2023, helping to boost the average amount of rise in sea surface height.
La Nina is characterized by cooler-than-normal ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. El Nino involves warmer-than-average ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific. Both periodic climate phenomena affect patterns of rainfall and snowfall as well as sea levels around the world.
'During La Nina, rain that normally falls in the ocean falls on the land instead, temporarily taking water out of the ocean and lowering sea levels,' said Josh Willis, a sea level researcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. 'In El Niño years, a lot of the rain that normally falls on land ends up in the ocean, which raises sea levels temporarily.'
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