Sea Level Trends of China Seas From 1993 to 2012

The AVISO altimeter products were used to analyze the sea level trend features of China seas and its relation to the adjacent oceans from 1993 to 2012.Results suggested that:1)the mean sea level trends of China seas is 4.3mm/year,which is higher than the global average;and the mean sea level trends of the Bohai sea,the Yellow China sea,the East China sea and the South China sea are 3.1、2.9、3.0and 4.6mm/year,respectively;the mean sea level trend of the areas including the Bohai sea,the Yellow sea and the East China sea as a whole is 3.0mm/year;2)the mean sea level trend of China seas' coasts and the whole China seas are 3.2and 4.3mm/year respectively,while the mean sea level trend of China seas' boundary areas reached 4.6mm/year,which is much greater than the whole China seas.The preliminary conclusions are,1)the mean sea level trend of the Bohai sea,the yellow China sea,the East China sea and the China seas' coasts are close to the global average during the past 20 years,whereas the South China sea made a considerable contribution to the sea level rise for the whole China seas;2)the high sea level trend rate of the China seas' boundary areas might be the major factor to elevate sea level of the inner areas of the China seas during the past 20 years.It seem to be also quite necessary to study the sea level trends and the mechanisms of the China seas' boundary areas when the sea level trends of the coasts are concerned.