Research

Speaker: Christopher Little

Coastal sea level observations from tide gauges provide a long,stable, and unique record of climate variability. By identifying relevantforcings and dynamical pathways, global ocean and climate models can helpinterpret these sea level observations…provided that observed variability, and itsunderlying physical processes, are well-represented. In this talk, I will introduce:1) some interesting features of interannual to multidecadal variability in tidegauge records, including apparent non-stationarity and inter-basin coherence;and 2) promising, but preliminary, evidence that (some) global ocean and climatemodel simulations represent these features. Ongoing analyses of thesesimulations are expected to provide insight into the mechanisms underlyingobserved variability, as well as its predictability over various societally-relevantlead times.