The zone of influence: matching sea level variability from coastal altimetry and tide gauges for vertical land motion estimation

Oelsmann, Julius; Passaro, Marcello; Dettmering, Denise; Schwatke, Christian; Sánchez, Laura; Seitz, Florian

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/os-17-35-2021

Articles | Volume 17, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/os-17-35-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/os-17-35-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 17, issue 1

Research article

|

12 Jan 2021

Research article |

| 12 Jan 2021

The zone of influence: matching sea level variability from coastal altimetry and tide gauges for vertical land motion estimation

Julius Oelsmann, Marcello Passaro, Denise Dettmering, Christian Schwatke, Laura Sánchez, and Florian Seitz

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Final revised paper (published on 12 Jan 2021)
Preprint (discussion started on 27 May 2020)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Review comments', Alvaro Santamaría-Gómez, 18 Jun 2020
- AC1: 'Response to Alvaro Santamaría-Gómez', Julius Oelsmann, 27 Aug 2020
RC2: 'Review of OS-2020-29 Oelsmann et al', Christopher Watson, 21 Jul 2020
- AC2: 'Response to Christopher Watson', Julius Oelsmann, 27 Aug 2020

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Julius Oelsmann on behalf of the Authors (27 Aug 2020) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (10 Sep 2020) by Joanne Williams

RR by Christopher Watson (26 Oct 2020)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

Summary:
The authors have comprehensively engaged with the review comments and improved the manuscript nicely. I have the following minor comments which the authors should address prior to publication (note my page and line numbers refer to the “track changes” version of the manuscript). I do not consider the manuscript requires additional review.

p3 l83: Strictly speaking, the issues with TOPEX were global, but undoubtedly had a regional expression. Suggest: ...can be affected by globally and regionally varying drifts...

p3 l86: The additions to this paragraph are an improvement - however, they are not explicit in saying that the technique does not consider estimation of the drift/systematic error issue w.r.t the reference missions. I suggest that a statement to this effect is added here, and/or in the paragraph around line 142 on page 5. The additional words in the last paragraph on page 6 partly addresses this, however this issue should be clear from the introduction.

p235 l8: The addition of this paragraph clarifies the treatment of tides nicely - I do however remain concerned regarding the aliased sampling of the residual longer period tides at TG sites. At some sites I would consider this a significant contribution to the error budget and it deserves mention in the discussion as a limiting factor. I did not see that this issue was mentioned in the discussion - I would consider this a useful addition.

p15 l357: I understand the sentiment, however the sentence commencing with "Moreover" could perhaps be improved. Perhaps: Moreover, sea level dynamics that are not common between the TG and altimeter observation locations will also contribute to the SAT-TG differences."

p25, l522: Perhaps: ...which may lead to locally different extents...

p29, l613: Rather than "detect more positive trends" perhaps mention sampling regions where significant GIA exists with a substantial uplift signal...

p29 section 5.2: This is a useful addition to the manuscript. Around line 602, "but does not feature a calibration against TG" could be expanded to clarify the role of MMXO, e.g.: ...but does not feature a calibration against TGs, nor can resolve regionally coherent systematic errors in the trend within the reference missions. (if this is indeed the case? - I guess I am seeking clarification of what the MMXO can and can not do w.r.t. regionally coherent signals in e.g. Jason-2 etc.

Very minor points:
p2 l44: this instead of those?
Throughout: Some of the brackets in references seem inconsistent - copy editing should resolve this.
Throughout: Inconsistent use of TG and tide gauge. Suggest find and replace?

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ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (26 Oct 2020) by Joanne Williams

AR by Julius Oelsmann on behalf of the Authors (03 Nov 2020) Author's response Manuscript

Short summary

Vertical land motion (VLM) significantly contributes to relative sea level change. Here, we improve the accuracy and precision of VLM estimates, which are based on the difference of altimetry tide gauge observations. Advanced coastal altimetry and an improved coupling procedure of along-track altimetry data and high-frequency tide gauge observations are key factors for a greater comparability of altimetry and tide gauges in the coastal zone and thus for more reliable VLM estimates.