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The rate of global sea level rise is accelerating. This has been shown before in studies based on altimeter data from American satellites. We’ve published about this in 2018. New research that also includes data from European satellites supports these previous studies. In this new study the time-series was increased a few years to span more than 27 years (from 1991 to 2019) and the spatial coverage was extended to also include higher latitudes.

According to the new calculations, the average acceleration between 1991 and 2019 was 0.1 mm/year² (to be more precise: 0.095 mm/year²). This means that the rate of sea level rise is now 1 mm per decade faster than 10 years ago. If, for example, the oceans rose by 2 mm in 2000, by 2010 they would have risen by 3 mm, and around 2020 by almost 4 mm.

These results agree with the results of previous studies. The scientists stress, however, that this time-series is still relatively short for climate research.

Source: Veng and Andersen, 2020. Advances in Space Research