Quantifying Anthropogenic Influences on Global Wave Height Trend During 1961–2020 With Focus on Polar Ocean

Type Article
Date 2024-03
Language English
Author(s) Patra AninditaORCID1, Dodet GuillaumeORCID1, Min Seung‐kiORCID2, Hochet Antoine3
Affiliation(s) 1 : Laboratoire d’Océanographie Physique et Spatiale Univ Brest CNRS IRD Ifremer Brest, France
2 : Division of Environmental Science and Engineering Pohang University of Science and Technology Pohang ,South Korea
3 : Laboratoire d’Océanographie Physique et Spatiale Univ Brest CNRS IRD Ifremer Brest, France
Source Geophysical Research Letters (0094-8276) (American Geophysical Union (AGU)), 2024-03 , Vol. 51 , N. 6 , P. e2023GL106544 (11p.)
DOI 10.1029/2023GL106544
Keyword(s) CMIP6/DAMIP, detection of anthropogenic signal, global significant wave height, Arctic and Antarctic Ocean, sea-ice and wind speed, greenhouse gas and aerosol forcing
Abstract

This study investigates the contribution of external forcings on global and regional ocean wave height change during 1961–2020. Historical significant wave height (Hs) produced for different CMIP6 external forcings and preindustrial control conditions following the Detection and Attribution Model Intercomparison Project (DAMIP) are employed. The internal variability ranges are compared with different external forcing scenario. Statistically significant linear trends in Hs computed over regional ocean basins are found to be mostly associated with anthropogenic forcings: greenhouse gas‐only (GHG) and aerosol‐only (AER) forcing. For Hs, GHG signals are robustly detected and dominant for most of the global ocean, except over North pacific and South Atlantic, where AER signals are dominant. These results are supported by multi‐model analysis for wind speed. The remarkable increase in Hs over the Arctic (22.3%) and Southern (8.2%) Ocean can be attributed to GHG induced sea‐ice depletion and larger effective fetch along with wind speed increase.

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