Climate Change | Sea Level Rise | Ocean Acidification
December 20, 2024
Why seas are surging | Interactive – the Washington Post
Excerpt:
What one tide gauge reveals about America’s climate future
The Fort Pulaski tide gauge sits on a small, narrow pier just 15 miles east of Savannah, Georgia. It is one of more than a hundred stations across the country that track high and low tides, temperatures, wind speeds, air pressure — and the rising seas.
For 90 years, this station has returned a steady stream of data to scientists, locals and ship captains, helping them track the rhythms of the ocean and avoid perilously low tides.
It has also shown a dangerous trend: Since 2010, the sea level at the Fort Pulaski gauge has risen by more than 7 inches, one of the fastest rates in the country, according to a Washington Post analysis of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data for 127 tide gauges.
Similar spikes are affecting the entire U.S. Southeast — showing a glimpse of our climate future.
Three sensors at Fort Pulaski, surrounding this small tidal house and protected by reinforced concrete, track the rising tides…
The United States has been recording tides for around two centuries. In the early 1800s, tide gauges were simple vertical staffs placed in the water, with individual monitors checking them every hour and recording data by hand. Later, an American inventor developed a tide gauge that recorded the levels without human intervention — a float rested on the top of the water, connected to a pencil above that traced out patterns on a recording sheet.
Now, the technology is much more sophisticated. NOAA’s tide gauges are outfitted with backup sensors, satellite communications and a version of GPS that allows precise measurement of the gauge height from a network of satellites around the globe.
That data has been critical for navigating harbors and channels, predicting the best time for fishing, and spurring trade. But today, it has taken on an even more urgent role — helping to track the seas rapidly rising due to human-driven climate change. And in some spots, like the area around Fort Pulaski, that sea level rise has accelerated…
And the deluge stretches all across the South and the Gulf Coast; over the past 14 years, sea levels in the U.S. South have risen twice as fast as the global average.
“It’s really the hot spot,” said Ben Hamlington, a research scientist who leads NASA’s sea level change team.
The speed has worried scientists. “What we’ve seen over the past decade, decade and a half in the Gulf of Mexico is faster than most climate projections,” said Chris Piecuch, an assistant scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. “And that’s what’s causing this big concern…”
Image at top: Installing a tide gage near Castle Cape (courtesy of NOAA Photo Library CC BY 2.0 via Flickr).
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Why seas are surging | Interactive – the Washington Post
What one tide gauge reveals about America’s climate future…
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