Sources and Sinks of Interannual Steric Sea Level Variability

Understanding the mechanisms of regional steric sea level variability is fundamental to understand the regional sea level variability recorded by satellite altimetry for years and to insure that future projections made by climate models are realistic. Here, we first develop a novel method based on steric sea level variance budget that allows to detect the sources and sinks of the variability. Using the "Estimating the Circulation and Climate of the Ocean" (ECCO V4) state estimate, we then show that interannual steric sea level variability is mainly sustained by interannual fluctuating winds via Ekman transport almost everywhere. The damping of the variability is made by both the interannual fluctuating net heat flux from the atmosphere, that largely dominates the atmospheric freshwater fluxes, and the parametrized effect of eddies. It is also found that the parametrized effect of diffusion on the variability is weak in most regions and that, although globally weak, the fluctuations of atmospheric freshwater fluxes are a source of variance close to the Equator in the Pacific Ocean.