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Abstract Data from tide gauges and satellite altimeters are used to provide an up‐to‐date assessment of the mean seasonal cycle in sea level () over most of the global coastal ocean. The tide gauge records, where available, depict a seasonal cycle with complex spatial structure along and across continental boundaries, and an annual oscillation dominating over semiannual variability, except in a few regions (e.g., the northwestern Gulf of Mexico). Comparisons between tide gauge and altimeter data reveal substantial root‐mean‐square differences and only slight improvements in agreement when using along‐track data optimized for coastal applications. Quantification of the uncertainty in the altimeter products, inferred from comparing gridded and along‐track estimates, indicate that differences to tide gauges partly reflect short‐scale features of the seasonal cycle in proximity to the coasts. We additionally probe the seasonal budget using satellite gravimetry‐based manometric estimates and steric terms calculated from the World Ocean Atlas 2023. Focusing on global median values, the sum of the estimated steric and manometric harmonics can explain 65% (respectively 40%) of the annual (semiannual) variance in the coastal observations. We identify several regions, for example, the Australian seaboard, where the seasonal budget is not closed and illustrate that such analysis is mainly limited by the coarse spatial resolution of present satellite‐derived mass change products. For most regions with a sufficiently tight budget closure, we find that although the importance of the manometric term generally increases with decreasing water depth, steric contributions are non‐negligible near coastlines, especially at the annual frequency. 

Abstract Emerging high‐resolution global ocean climate models are expected to improve both hindcasts and forecasts of coastal sea level variability by better resolving ocean turbulence and other small‐scale phenomena. To examine this hypothesis, we compare annual to multidecadal coastal sea level variability over the 1993–2018 period, as observed by tide gauges and as simulated by two identically forced ocean models, at (LR) and (HR) horizontal resolution. Differences between HR and LR, and misfits with tide gauges, are spatially coherent at regional alongcoast scales. Resolution‐related improvements are largest in, and near, marginal seas. Near attached western boundary currents, sea level variance is several times greater in HR than LR, but correlations with observations may be reduced, due to intrinsic ocean variability. Globally, in HR simulations, intrinsic variability comprises from zero to over 80% of coastal sea level variance. Outside of eddy‐rich regions, simulated coastal sea level variability is generally damped relative to observations. We hypothesize that weak coastal variability is related to large‐scale, remotely forced, variability; in both HR and LR, tropical sea level variance is underestimated by 50% relative to satellite altimetric observations. Similar coastal dynamical regimes (e.g., attached western boundary currents) exhibit a consistent sensitivity to horizontal resolution, suggesting that these findings are generalizable to regions with limited coastal observations. 

Abstract Ocean heat content (OHC) is key to estimating the energy imbalance of the earth system. Over the past two decades, an increasing number of OHC studies were conducted using oceanic objective analysis (OA) products. Here we perform an intercomparison of OHC from eight OA products with a focus on their robust features and significant differences over the Argo period (2005-2019), when the most reliable global scale oceanic measurements are available. For the global ocean, robust warming in the upper 2000 m is confirmed. The 0-300 m layer shows the highest warming rate but is heavily modulated by interannual variability, particularly the El Niño–Southern Oscillation. The 300-700 m and 700-2000 m layers, on the other hand, show unabated warming. Regionally, the Southern Ocean and mid-latitude North Atlantic show a substantial OHC increase, and the subpolar North Atlantic displays an OHC decrease. A few apparent differences in OHC among the examined OA products were identified. In particular, temporal means of a few OA products that incorporated other ocean measurements besides Argo show a global-scale cooling difference, which is likely related to the baseline climatology fields used to generate those products. Large differences also appear in the interannual variability in the Southern Ocean and in the long-term trends in the subpolar North Atlantic. These differences remind us of the possibility of product-dependent conclusions on OHC variations. Caution is therefore warranted when using merely one OA product to conduct OHC studies, particularly in regions and on timescales that display significant differences. 

Abstract Salinity is one of the fundamental ocean state variables and has been used to infer important information about climate change and variability. Previous studies have found inconsistent salinity variations in various objective ocean analyses that are based on the Argo measurements. However, as far as we are aware, a comprehensive assessment of those inconsistencies, as well as robust spatial and temporal features of salinity variability among the Argo-based products, has not been conducted. Here we compare and evaluate ocean salinity variability from five objective ocean analyses that are solely or primarily based on Argo measurements for their overlapping period from 2005 to 2015. We examine the salinity variability at the sea surface and within two depth intervals (0–700 and 700–2000 m). Our results show that the climatological mean is generally consistent among all examined products, although regional discrepancies are evident in the subsurface ocean. The time evolution, vertical structure, and leading EOF modes of salinity variations show good agreement among most of the examined products, indicating that a number of robust features of the salinity variability can be obtained by examining gridded Argo products. However, significant discrepancies in these variations exist, particularly in the subsurface North Atlantic and Southern Oceans. Also, despite the increasing number of Argo floats deployed in the ocean, the discrepancies were not significantly reduced over time. Our analyses, particularly those of the discrepancies between products, can serve as a useful reference for utilizing and improving the existing objective ocean analyses that are based on Argo measurements.