A Statistical Simulation Model for Global Mean Sea Level from Altimetry and Tide Gauge Reconstructions

Calculations done using global mean sea level from altimetry and tide gauges often require doing simulations in order to put proper confidence intervals on our results. This is because many, if not most, of our calculations are too complex to allow for classical approaches to estimating confidence intervals and we therefore rely heavily on simulation methods (e.g., Monte Carlo). This, however, requires careful thought about how to construct the error model that is used to generate artificial datasets for use in the simulation methods. In this presentation we will describe models that we have developed and give details on the methods we have applied in order to derive the model. The model and the methods should be of use to other researchers not only in this context, but more broadly.