Regional Sea Level Reconstruction in the Pacific Ocean

Abstract

As a result of the spatial and temporal sampling shortcomings of tide gauge and satellite altimetry data, forming a sea level record that has the quality and duration necessary to compare past to present sea level is a challenge. Here, we build on the recently developed method for reconstructing sea level involving cyclostationary empirical orthogonal functions (CSEOFs) and, in particular, examine how the reconstruction varies as a result of the domain used to compute the CSEOF basis functions. While not affecting the ability to capture the dominant climate signals, the choice of basis function is found to have a significant effect on the regional distribution of the trend in sea level. We also demonstrate the use of a CSEOF reconstructed sea level dataset for climate monitoring, focusing on climate signals in the Pacific Ocean.