Sea Level Changes Detected by Using Satellite Altimeter Data and Comparing with Tide Gauge Records in China Sea

The Topex/Poseidon (cycles 9-249), Geosat/ERM and ERS-2 (cycles 0-44) altimeter data are used to analyze the sea level changes in China Sea. The sea level changes in studying areas derived respectively from TOPEX/Poseidon and ERS-2 data during the same period are almost coincident with each other. The results are compared with the tide gauge records at different sites of China Sea, and they indicate that the sea level change in China Sea appears to be a rising trend with 2-3 mm per year. Moreover, the trends of the seasonal sea level changes of this region are reverse to that of the global sea. We also investigate some possible implied relationships of local sea level changes to some anomalies of sea surface heights due to such as El Niño/La Nina phenomena in different time and spatial spans.