The WCRP has established short-term cross-cutting activities to develop and co-ordinate research of immediate importance to end-users. One such challenge is that, over the past decade, global mean sea-level has been observed by both tide gauges and satellite altimeters to be rising at a rate of just above 3 mm/year, compared to a rate of less than 2 mm/yr from tide gauges over the past half century. However, the extent to which this increase reflects natural variability versus anthropogenic climate change is unknown. The Sea-level Task Team was established by the WCRP to tackle this end-user research issue.

In June 2006, this group organized the WCRP Sea-level Rise Workshop. The group's goal was to bring together all relevant scientific expertise with a view towards identifying the uncertainties associated with sea-level rise and the research and observational activities needed for narrowing these uncertainties. The Workshop was also conducted in support of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) 10-Year Implementation Plan. As such, it will help develop international and interdisciplinary scientific consensus for those observational requirements needed to address sea-level rise and its variability (see Summary Statement from the Sea-level Rise and Variability Workshop (high-res. 82 MB / low-res. 1.6 MB)).

Dr T. Aarup
IOC, France
E-mail: t.aarup@unesco.org 

Dr J. Church
CSIRO Marine Research, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
E-mail: john.church@csiro.au

Dr S. Wilson
NOAA/NESDIS, Silver Spring MD, USA
E-mail: stan.wilson@noaa.gov

Dr P. Woodworth
Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory, Liverpool, UK
E-mail: plw@pol.ac.uk