Slowdown in rising sea levels is result of satellite artifact

New Scientist : Over the past decade, satellite data have suggested that global sea-level rise is slowing. That finding conflicts with separate measurements taken of the amount of ice melting from glaciers and the polar regions. Now, Christopher Watson of the University of Tasmania in Australia and his colleagues have determined that the apparent slowdown is the result of an error in the satellite data. When the researchers compared the measurements from satellites with the largest-ever set of tidal gauges, they discovered that Topex A, the satellite that operated from 1993 to 1999, had been calibrated to an incorrect base sea level. The higher base sea level masked the actual sea-level increase. Adjusting the calibration and recalculating sea levels results in a closer match with the separate measurements of ice loss. Over the past century, Earth’s mean sea level has risen by about 20 cm.