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Sea Level Rise - US

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This working group is focused on discussions about sea level rise.

The purpose of this working group is to discuss what is causing the rise in sea level, how to reduce the rate at which the seas are rising, and how to mitigate the impact that sea level rise is having and will have on our coastal communities.

Members

Kathy Gilbeaux mdmcdonald MDMcDonald_me_com

Email address for group

sea-level-rise-us@m.resiliencesystem.org

Scientists Just Documented a Massive Recent Melt Event on the Surface of Antarctica

           

An iceberg lies in the Ross Sea with Mount Erebus in the background near McMurdo Station, Antarctica, in November 2016. (AFP/Getty Images)

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Nature Communications - January 2016 extensive summer melt in West Antarctica favoured by strong El Niño

washingtonpost.com - by Chris Mooney - June 15, 2017

Scientists have documented a recent, massive melt event on the surface of highly vulnerable West Antarctica that, they fear, could be a harbinger of future events as the planet continues to warm.

In the Antarctic summer of 2016, the surface of the Ross Ice Shelf, the largest floating ice platform on Earth, developed a sheet of meltwater that lasted for as long as 15 days in some places. The total area affected by melt was 300,000 square miles, or larger than the state of Texas, the scientists report.

That’s bad news because surface meltin g could work hand in hand with an already documented trend of ocean-driven melting to compromise West Antarctica, which contains over 10 feet of potential sea level rise.

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Scientists Say the Pace of Sea Level Rise Has Nearly Tripled Since 1990

           

An iceberg is pictured in the western Antarctic peninsula in March 2016. (Eitan Abramovich/AFP/Getty Images)

CLICK HERE - RESEARCH - PNAS - Reassessment of 20th century global mean sea level rise

washingtonpost.com - by Chris Mooney - May 22, 2017

A new scientific analysis finds that the Earth’s oceans are rising nearly three times as rapidly as they were throughout most of the 20th century, one of the strongest indications yet that a much feared trend of not just sea level rise, but its acceleration, is now underway.

“We have a much stronger acceleration in sea level rise than formerly thought,” said Sönke Dangendorf, a researcher with the University of Siegen in Germany who led the study along with scientists at institutions in Spain, France, Norway and the Netherlands.

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Atlantic City and Miami Beach: two takes on tackling the rising waters

Note: Average seasonal cycle removed from monthly mean sea level Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | Graphic: Jan Diehm/The Guardian

IMAGE: Note: Average seasonal cycle removed from monthly mean sea level Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | Graphic: Jan Diehm/The Guardian

theguardian.com - March 20th 2017 - Oliver Milman

The Irish Pub near Atlantic City’s famed boardwalk doesn’t have any locks on the doors as it is open 24 hours a day. So when Hurricane Sandy crunched into what was once known as the Las Vegas of the east coast in 2012, some improvisation was needed.

Regular drinkers helped slot a cork board through the frame of the door, wedging it shut and keeping out the surging seawater.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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Prepare for 'Surprise' as Global Warming Stokes Arctic Shifts - Scientists

           

The crew of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy, in the midst of their ICESCAPE mission, retrieves supplies in the Arctic Ocean in this July 12, 2011 NASA handout photo. Kathryn Hansen/NASA via REUTERS/File Photo

"Ultimately, realising resilience in the Arctic will depend on empowering the people of the North to self-organise"

CLICK HERE - Stockholm Resilience Centre - Dealing with Arctic tipping points

CLICK HERE - Arctic Resilience Report

Thomson Reuters Foundation - by Megan Rowling - November 25, 2016

Unless the world stops burning fossil fuels that are fuelling global warming, irreversible changes in the Arctic could have disastrous effects for the people that live there and for the rest of the planet, researchers warned on Friday.

The Arctic's ecosystems are fundamentally threatened by climate change and other human activities, such as oil and gas extraction, they said in a report for the Arctic Council, an inter-governmental forum working to protect the region's environment.

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Climate Change: Projecting Future Sea Level Rise

hrpdcva.gov - July 2013

Effective planning for development and infrastructure near the shore requires understanding various shore processes, including erosion, tidal patterns, and sea level change. There is a significant amount of research documenting both a sustained and long-running trend of sea level rise and that the rate of sea level rise is likely to accelerate. Therefore, it is important for local planners to understand how much sea level rise is projected to occur and at what rate. Understanding the drivers of sea level rise and how they affect sea level rise rates can also help decision-makers tasked with selecting appropriate policy and infrastructure responses.

CLICK HERE - SEE PAGES 7-16 WITHIN 154 PAGE .PDF REPORT
Coastal Resiliency: Adapting to Climate Change in Hampton Roads

 

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Historic High Tides from Supermoon and Sea Level Rise Flood the Southeast Coast

      

The scene in Charleston, S.C., on Tuesday morning during high tide. (Jessica Hofford)

washingtonpost.com - by Angela Fritz - October 27, 2015

Ocean water surged into neighborhoods on the Southeast coast on Tuesday morning during high tide, pushing gauges well beyond predicted levels. Seemingly overnight, spurred by sea level rise, we’ve entered an era where king tides compete with hurricanes in the water level record books . . .

. . . Residents are saying Tuesday’s high tide was worse than South Carolina’s “1,000-year flood” in early October.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

 

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This is How Rising Seas Will Reshape the Face of the United States

             

Buildings near the ocean in North Miami, Fla., a state with a high risk of flooding as sea levels rise, according to a recent report. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Carbon choices determine US cities committed to futures below sea level

CLICK HERE - INTERACTIVE MAP - Surging Seas

washingtonpost.com - by Chris Mooney - October 12, 2015

In a new study, a team of scientists who specialize in studying rising seas bring the implications of their research right to the U.S.’s doorstep — calculating just how many American cities and municipalities are at risk of being flooded in the future, as well as how many may already be committed to that fate.

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Why Some Scientists are Worried About a Surprisingly Cold ‘Blob’ in the North Atlantic Ocean

      

January–August 2015 Blended Land and Sea Surface Temperature Percentiles. (NOAA)

CLICK HERE - PAPER - Exceptional twentieth-century slowdown in Atlantic Ocean overturning circulation

washingtonpost.com - by Chris Mooney - September 24, 2015

. . . we learned from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that the first eight months of 2015 were the hottest such stretch yet recorded for the globe’s surface land and oceans, based on temperature records going back to 1880. . . .

In the North Atlantic Ocean south of Greenland and Iceland, the ocean surface has seen very cold temperatures for the past eight months. . . .

. . . And while there may not yet be any scientific consensus on the matter, at least some scientists suspect that the cooling seen in these maps is no fluke but, rather, part of a process that has been long feared by climate researchers — the slowing of Atlantic Ocean circulation.

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National Data Buoy Center (NDBC)

To monitor NDBC buoy data for the U.S. East Coast, here are the links.  
For specific buoy data, click on the buoy numbers in the white boxes.
Click on the highlighted boxes to zoom-in for data on buoys near heavily populated areas.
For wave heights, see the data under the column for “WVHT”, and note the direction the water is moving (Mean Wave Direction) - "MWD".
 
NDBC - Measurement Descriptions and Units (see WVHT and MWD)
http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/measdes.shtml
 
NDBC - Northeast USA Recent Marine Data
 
NDBC - Southeast USA Recent Marine Data
 
NDBC - Florida and Eastern Gulf of Mexico Recent Marine Data
 
Recent Data - National Data Buoy Center (NDBC)
 
NDBC - Map - Significant Wave Height with Wave 
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NASA: On the U.S. East Coast, Sea Level is Rising Two or Three Times Faster Than Average

Glacial Rebound: The Not So Solid Earth

nasa.gov - August 26, 2015

When you fill a sink, the water rises at the same rate to the same height in every corner. That's not the way it works with our rising seas.

According to the 23-year record of satellite data from NASA and its partners, the sea level is rising a few millimeters a year -- a fraction of an inch. If you live on the U.S. East Coast, though, your sea level is rising two or three times faster than average. If you live in Scandinavia, it's falling. Residents of China's Yellow River delta are swamped by sea level rise of more than nine inches (25 centimeters) a year.

These regional differences in sea level change will become even more apparent in the future, as ice sheets melt. For instance, when the Amundsen Sea sector of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is totally gone, the average global sea level will rise four feet. But the East Coast of the United States will see an additional 14 to 15 inches above that average.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

 

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