Are Global Tide Gauge Data Stationary in Variance?

Tide gauges distributed all over the world provide valuable information for monitoring mean sea level changes. The statistical models used in estimating sea level change from the tide gauge data assume implicitly that the random model components are stationary in variance. We show that for a large number of global tide gauge data this is not the case for the seasonal part using a variate-differencing algorithm. This finding is important for assessing the reliability of the present estimates of mean sea level changes because nonstationarity of the data may have marked impact on the sea level rate estimates, especially, for the data from short records.     

The state‐of‐the‐art in marine navigation

Tide gauges distributed all over the world provide valuable information for monitoring mean sea level changes. The statistical models used in estimating sea level change from the tide gauge data assume implicitly that the random model components are stationary in variance. We show that for a large number of global tide gauge data this is not the case for the seasonal part using a variate-differencing algorithm. This finding is important for assessing the reliability of the present estimates of mean sea level changes because nonstationarity of the data may have marked impact on the sea level rate estimates, especially, for the data from short records.     

20世纪全球海平面年代际间变率及区域特征

利用PSMSL全球海潮测量资料,分析了100多年以来全球海平面的年代际间变化特征,同时对区域变化特征进行了分析,得出全球海平面自30世纪70年代以来持续上升,全球海平面上升的区域变化特征明显,特别是最近30 a以来区域海平面变率增大。海平面变化的这种趋势和全球地面温度变化趋势相似。对几个有着较长时间记录的潮汐站测量资料进行了分析,从更长的时间尺度上调查了海平面的长期变化趋势。对全球潮汐测量资料的长期变化趋势分析后,得出在过去一个世纪里全球海平面呈现一个整体上升的趋势,在北大西洋和太平洋西部,海平面出现了近40 mm/a的上升量。