Sea level rise from AR5

Topics

• Access
• Description
• Parameters
• Coverage, spatial and temporal resolution
• Data quality
• Contact person
• References
• Data citation

Access

UNRESTRICTED:

• View data at LAS: 
  • Total Sea Level Rise:  time series | 20 year mean difference maps
• Get data via FTP
• Access data via OPeNDAP

RESTRICTED: This link to the data set is only available for a restricted user group.  The data set is only accessible in CEN/MPI net or accessible from external nets with a customer account.  Please contact ICDC if you would like to access this data from outside the network.

• Data access via file system: /data/icdc/ocean/ar5_sea_level_rise/

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Description

These are the relative sea surface height (SSH) data, which was used in the construction of figures for the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC-AR5). The data include 10 geophysical sources that drive long-term changes in relative SSH:

• 5 ice components (Greenland dynamic ice and surface mass balance, Antarctic dynamic ice and surface mass balance, and glaciers),
• 3 ocean-related components, all of which are derived from CMIP5 models (dynamic SSH, global thermosteric SSH anomaly, and the inverse barometer effect from the atmosphere),
• land water storage (also called terrestrial water), and 
• glacial isostatic adjustment (as a change in sea level relative to land).

In addition to the relatively few fields actually used in the IPCC-AR5 figures, all individual components are available here, both as maps of 20-yr mean differences (always the 2081-2100 mean minus the 1986-2005 mean), and as time series with the 1986-2005 mean set as the common zero SSH anomaly value.

All processing methods and data sources are defined in chapter 13 of the Supplementary Material, see references. Some further details, including combining uncertainties from different components, are included in a readme file (see references).

Last update of data set at ICDC:

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Parameters

Parameters of the RCP 4.5 and 8.5 data set

Name	Unit
total ensemble mean ssh ts	m
5% uncertainty ssh ts	m
95% uncertainty ssh ts	m

Parameters of the  RCP 2.6, 4.5, 6.0, 8.5 and for every component data set

Name	Unit
middle value (i.e., central estimate)	m
90%CL lower uncertainty estimate (p=0.05)	m
90%CL higher uncertainty estimate (p=0.95)	m
standard error	m

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Coverage, spatial and temporal resolution

Period and temporal resolution:

• 2007 until 2100 
• yearly

Coverage and spatial resolution:

• spatial resolution: 1°x1°
• Geographic Latitude: -90°N to 90°N
• Geographic Longitude: 0°E to 360°E

Format:

• NetCDF

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Data quality

see description.

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Contact

Mark Carson
Institute of Oceanography / CEN / University of Hamburg
email: mark.carson (at) uni-hamburg.de

Remon Sadikni
ICDC / CEN / University of Hamburg
E-Mail: remon.sadikni@uni-hamburg.de<br />(remon.sadikni"AT"uni-hamburg.de)

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References

Literature:

• Chapter 13 paper:
  Church, J. A., P. Clark, A. Cazenave, J. Gregory, S. Jevrejeva, A. Levermann, M. Merrifield, G. Milne, R.S.Nerem, P. Nunn, A. Payne, W. Pfeffer, D. Stammer, and A. Unnikrishnan (2013), Sea level change, in Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis, edited by T. F. Stocker, D. Qin, G.-K. Plattner, M. Tignor, S. Allen, J. Boschung, A. Nauels, Y. Xia, V. Bex, and P. Midgley, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY. USA (pdf, not barrier-free)

• AR5 Sea Level Change Supplementary Material, Chapter 13:
  Church, J.A., P.U. Clark, A. Cazenave, J.M. Gregory, S. Jevrejeva, A. Levermann, M.A. Merrifield, G.A. Milne, R.S. Nerem, P.D. Nunn, A.J. Payne, W.T. Pfeffer, D. Stammer and A.S. Unnikrishnan, 2013: Sea Level Change Supplementary Material. In: Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Stocker, T.F., D. Qin, G.-K. Plattner, M. Tignor, S.K. Allen, J. Boschung, A. Nauels, Y. Xia, V. Bex and P.M. Midgley (eds.)]. (pdf, not barrier-free)

• AR5 SLR Readme File (txt)

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Data citation

Please cite the data as follows:

Church, J. A., P. Clark, A. Cazenave, J. Gregory, S. Jevrejeva, A. Levermann, M. Merrifield, G. Milne, R.S.Nerem, P. Nunn, A. Payne, W. Pfeffer, D. Stammer, and A. Unnikrishnan (2013), Sea level change, in Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis, edited by T. F. Stocker, D. Qin, G.-K. Plattner, M. Tignor, S. Allen, J. Boschung, A. Nauels, Y. Xia, V. Bex, and P. Midgley, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY. USA

and with the following acknowledgments:

Regional sea level data from IPCC AR5 distributed in netCDF format by the Integrated Climate Data CenterICDC, CEN, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.

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