The major Sea Level and Climate research lines conducted at IMEDEA are:
1. Long-term (interannual to interdecadal) Sea Level variability and Climate. The main objectives of this line are:
1a) To understand the long-term sea level variability observed in the Mediterranean Sea and the NE sector of the Atlantic Ocean. We pay particular attention to explain the observed variability in terms of the different contributing processes, namely the atmospheric component (mechanical forcing of Sea Level by atmospheric pressure and wind), the steric component (derived from changes in the density of the water column) and the mass component (derived from changes in the regional amount of mass, which in turn depend on the melting of continental ice and the redistribution of mass within the World ocean).
1b) To obtain regional marine climate scenarios for the 21st century. The projected variables are temperature, salinity, currents, the steric component of sea level, the atmospheric component of sea level and waves. The research not only focuses on projecting changes in the mean values, but also in the distribution of extremes of sea level and other parameters such as temperature (heat waves) and significant wave height. See this Table for a list of current and projected simulations.
2. High-frequency Sea Level Oscillations: meteotsunamis or meteorological tsunamis are atmospherically induced ocean waves in the tsunami frequency band. They affect coasts in a damaging way in a number of places in the World Ocean. These destructive waves are not related to any seismic activity, volcanic explosions, submarine landslides or meteorite impacts, but to atmospheric forcing: atmospheric gravity waves, pressure jumps, frontal passages, squalls, tropical cyclones, or similar. The main objective of this line is to improve the knowledge on the sources and atmospheric characteristics of the meteotsunamis, its interaction with coastal waters and amplification when approaching and hitting the shoreline.