Using the Vertical Land Movement estimates from the IGS TIGA combined solution to derive Global Mean Sea Level changes

Global mean sea level (GMSL) is now widely recognized to have risen between 1 to 2 mm/yr depending on location since the 20th century. Prior to the satellite altimetry era, GMSL was primarily estimated from a set of secular tide gauge records relative to coastal benchmarks. Recent measurements of GPS (Global Positioning System) have been demonstrated as a useful tool of a direct estimate of Vertical Land Motion (VLM) induced by both long and short-term geophysical and human-induced processes in a geocentric reference frame. This presentation will provide the results of a combination performed using the CATREF software of three independent GPS daily solutions provided by British Isles continuous GNSS Facility – University of Luxembourg consortium (BLT), German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) and University of La Rochelle (ULR) under the auspices of the Tide Gauge Benchmark Monitoring (TIGA) Working Group (WG), that results in a spatially comprehensive map of VLM near or close to tide gauge benchmarks. The combination was performed in accordance with the second re-processing campaign (repro2) of the IGS (International GNSS Service). Long coastal tide gauge records from the archives maintained at the Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level (PSMSL) were extracted for relative sea level estimates. To cross-compare the sea level rates over the years, we employed observations between 1900-2016. Then, the time series were cut and analyzed separately, ceteris paribus, for the period 1960-2016. This analysis was aimed at a cross-comparison of relative sea level trends and their changes over the years. The stochastic part of the tide gauge records was analyzed with Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) and assumed several different combinations of noise models with the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC) providing a means to identify the preferred one. The relative sea level estimates were corrected by the inverted barometric effect to the tide-gauge records using data from the 20th century Reanalysis project version V2C, the effect of wind stress on the surface of the ocean in both, zonal and meridional components, as well as Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation (NPGO) influencing Pacific tide gauge records. The GPS-based velocities were corrected by Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA) effect using ICE-6G(VM5a) model with associated geoid rate and post seismic decays using ITRF2014 estimates. Also, environmental loading models were employed to account for present-day elastic loading in VLM. The Mean Sea Level (MSL) trends from tide gauges and VLM-corrected MSL trends using GIA model (TG+GIA) and the TIGA combination (TG+TIGA) were determined. Our final reconstruction of GMSL based on the MSL records from 1900 to 2016 where the VLM uncertainty is smaller than 0.7 mm/yr indicate a long-term trend of 1.75 +/- 0.2 mm/yr and is in good agreement with several similar determinations.