Vertical Land Motion in the Mediterranean Sea from Altimetry and Tide Gauge Stations |
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| Authors: | LUCIANA FENOGLIO-MARC CAROLA DIETZ ERWIN GROTEN |
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| Institution: | Institute of Physical Geodesy Darmstadt University of Technology , Darmstadt, Germany |
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| Abstract: | We have computed estimates of the rate of vertical land motion in the Mediterranean Sea from differences of sea level heights measured by the TOPEX/Poseidon radar altimeter and by a set of tide gauge stations. The comparison of data at 16 tide gauges, using both hourly data from local datasets and monthly data from the PSMSL dataset, shows a general agreement, significant differences are found at only one location. Differences of near-simultaneous, monthly and deseasoned monthly sea level height time-series have been considered in order to reduce the error in the estimated linear-term. In a subset of 23 tide gauge stations the mean accuracy of the estimated vertical rates is 2.3 ± 0.8 mm/yr. Results for various stations are in agreement with estimates of vertical land motion from geodetic methods. A comparison with vertical motion estimated by GPS at four locations shows a mean difference of ?0.04 ± 1.8 mm/yr, however the length of the GPS time-series and the number of locations are too small to draw general conclusions. |
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| Keywords: | vertical land motion sea level change altimetry tide gauge |
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