Sea-Level Change in the Baltic Sea

Regional sea level changes occur at different time scales. Global warming of the oceans, glacial and polar ice melting and meteorological or hydrological factors are major contributors to long-term sea level rise. In the recent years, a lot of attention has been paid to research concerning sea level change and seasonal fluctuations. The main objective of this paper was to determine the seasonal variability in the Baltic Sea level using satellite altimetry data for the period 1 January 2010 – 31 December 2014. The ANOVA analysis of variance was used in the research in order to estimate seasonal fluctuations. This study focused on investigate the monthly and annual amplitude in sea level anomalies over a given time period. The results from research showed that the amplitudes of fluctuations are the highest in winter and the smallest in summer in three analyzed points of the Baltic Sea. The results can bring valuable information about ongoing aspects in sea level changes, as a way of tracking climate change.

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A Holocene relative sea-level database for the Baltic Sea

Quaternary Science Reviews ◽

10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.107071 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 266 ◽

pp. 107071

Author(s):

Alar Rosentau ◽

Volker Klemann ◽

Ole Bennike ◽

Holger Steffen ◽

Jasmin Wehr ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Baltic Sea ◽

Sea Level ◽

The Baltic Sea ◽

Relative Sea Level ◽

The Baltic

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GIS analysis of effects of future Baltic Sea level rise on the island of Gotland, Sweden

10.5194/nhess-2016-55 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Karin Ebert ◽

Karin Ekstedt ◽

Jerker Jarsjö

Keyword(s):

Baltic Sea ◽

Sea Level Rise ◽

Sea Level ◽

Coastal Aquifers ◽

Salt Water ◽

Global Perspective ◽

Salt Water Intrusion ◽

The Baltic Sea ◽

Water Intrusion ◽

The Baltic

Abstract. Future sea level rise as a consequence of global warming will affect the world's coastal regions. Even though the pace of sea level rise is not clear, the consequences will be severe and global. Commonly the effects of future sea level rise are investigated for relatively vulnerable development countries; however, a whole range of varying regions need to be considered in order to improve the understanding of global consequences. In this paper we investigate consequences of future sea level rise along the coast of the Baltic Sea island of Gotland, Sweden, with the aim to fill knowledge gaps regarding comparatively well-suited areas in non-development countries. We study both the quantity of loss of infrastructure, cultural and natural values for the case of a two metre sea level rise of the Baltic Sea, and the effects of climate change on seawater intrusion in coastal aquifers, causing the indirect effect of salt water intrusion in wells. We conduct a multi-criteria risk analysis by using Lidar data on land elevation and GIS-vulnerability mapping, which gives formerly unimaginable precision in the application of distance and elevation parameters. We find that in case of a 2 m sea level rise, 3 % of the land area of Gotland, corresponding to 99 km2, will be inundated. The features most strongly affected are items of touristic or nature values, including camping places, shore meadows, sea stack areas, and endangered plants and species habitats. In total, 231 out of 7354 wells will be directly inundated, and the number of wells in the high-risk zone for saltwater intrusion in wells will increase considerably. Some values will be irreversibly lost due to e.g. inundation of sea stacks and the passing of tipping points for sea water intrusion into coastal aquifers; others might simply be moved further inland, but this requires considerable economic means and prioritization. With nature tourism being one of the main income sources of Gotland, monitoring and planning is required to meet the changes. Seeing Gotland in a global perspective, this island shows that holistic multi-feature studies of future consequences of sea level rise are required, to identify overall consequences for individual regions.

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Assessment of the dynamics of sea level and physical phenomena in the Baltic sea

Geodetski vestnik ◽

10.15292/geodetski-vestnik.2018.03.430-444 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 62 (03) ◽

pp. 430-444 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Katarzyna Pajak ◽

Kamil Kowalczyk

Keyword(s):

Baltic Sea ◽

Sea Level ◽

The Baltic Sea ◽

The Baltic ◽

Physical Phenomena

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Sea level variations in the coastal region from altimetry – Using optimal interpolation in the Baltic Sea for 3-day mean sea level from altimetry, tide gauge and model data

10.5194/egusphere-egu21-10733 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ida Margrethe Ringgaard ◽

Jacob L. Høyer ◽

Kristine S. Madsen ◽

Adili Abulaitijiang ◽

Ole B. Andersen

Keyword(s):

Baltic Sea ◽

Sea Level ◽

Temporal Resolution ◽

Satellite Altimetry ◽

Tide Gauge ◽

Coastal Region ◽

Optimal Interpolation ◽

The Baltic Sea ◽

Spatial Coverage ◽

The Baltic

<p>The rise and fall of the sea surface in the coastal region is observed closely by two different sources: tide gauges measure the relative sea level anomaly at the coast at high temporal resolution (minutes or hours) and satellite altimeters measure the absolute sea surface height of the open ocean along tracks multiple times a day. However, these daily tracks are scattered across the Baltic Sea with each track being repeated at a lower temporal resolution (days). Due to the inverse relationship between spatial and temporal coverage of the satellite altimetry data, gridded satellite altimetry products often prioritize spatial coverage over temporal resolution, thus filtering out the high sea level variability. In other words, the satellite data, and especially averaged products, often miss the daily sea level variability, such as storm surges, which is most important for all societies in the coastal region. To compensate for the sparse spatial coverage from satellite altimetry, we here present an experimental product developed as part of the ESA project Baltic+SEAL: &#160;on a 3-day scale, the DMI Optimal Interpolation (DMI-OI) method is combined with error statistics from a storm surge model as well as 3-day averages from both tide gauge observations and satellite altimetry tracks to generate a gridded sea level anomaly product for the Baltic Sea for year 2017. The product captures the overall temporal evolution of the sea level changes well for most areas with an average RMSE wrt. tide gauge observations of 17.2 cm and a maximum of 34.2 cm. Thus, the 3-day mean gridded product shows potential as an alternative to monthly altimetry products, although further work is needed.</p>

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The Challenge of Baltic Sea Level Change

Coastline Changes of the Baltic Sea from South to East - Coastal Research Library ◽

10.1007/978-3-319-49894-2_3 ◽

2017 ◽

pp. 37-54 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Birgit Hünicke ◽

Eduardo Zorita ◽

Hans von Storch

Keyword(s):

Baltic Sea ◽

Sea Level ◽

Sea Level Change ◽

Level Change

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Mechanisms of variability in decadal sea-level trends in the Baltic Sea over the 20th century

Earth System Dynamics ◽

10.5194/esd-8-1031-2017 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 8 (4) ◽

pp. 1031-1046 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Sitar Karabil ◽

Eduardo Zorita ◽

Birgit Hünicke

Keyword(s):

Regression Model ◽

Baltic Sea ◽

Sea Level ◽

Atmospheric Circulation ◽

Data Sets ◽

Climatic Data ◽

The Baltic Sea ◽

Underlying Factor ◽

Coastal Sea ◽

The Baltic

Abstract. Coastal sea-level trends in the Baltic Sea display decadal-scale variations around a long-term centennial trend. In this study, we analyse the spatial and temporal characteristics of the decadal trend variations and investigate the links between coastal sea-level trends and atmospheric forcing on a decadal timescale. For this analysis, we use monthly means of sea-level and climatic data sets. The sea-level data set is composed of long tide gauge records and gridded sea surface height (SSH) reconstructions. Climatic data sets are composed of sea-level pressure, air temperature, precipitation, evaporation, and climatic variability indices. The analysis indicates that atmospheric forcing is a driving factor of decadal sea-level trends. However, its effect is geographically heterogeneous. This impact is large in the northern and eastern regions of the Baltic Sea. In the southern Baltic Sea area, the impacts of atmospheric circulation on decadal sea-level trends are smaller. To identify the influence of the large-scale factors other than the effect of atmospheric circulation in the same season on Baltic Sea sea-level trends, we filter out the direct signature of atmospheric circulation for each season separately on the Baltic Sea level through a multivariate linear regression model and analyse the residuals of this regression model. These residuals hint at a common underlying factor that coherently drives the decadal sea-level trends in the whole Baltic Sea. We found that this underlying effect is partly a consequence of decadal precipitation trends in the Baltic Sea basin in the previous season. The investigation of the relation between the AMO index and sea-level trends implies that this detected underlying factor is not connected to oceanic forcing driven from the North Atlantic region.

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