Sea State Decadal Variability in the North Atlantic: A Review

Long-term changes of wind-generated ocean waves have important consequences for marine engineering, coastal management, ship routing, and marine spatial planning. It is well-known that the multi-annual variability of wave parameters in the North Atlantic is tightly linked to natural fluctuations of the atmospheric circulation, such as the North Atlantic Oscillation. However, anthropogenic climate change is also expected to influence sea states over the long-term through the modification of atmospheric and ocean circulation and melting of sea ice. Due to the relatively short duration of historical sea state observations and the significant multi-decadal variability in the sea state signal, disentangling the anthropogenic signal from the natural variability is a challenging task. In this article, the literature on inter-annual to multi-decadal variability of sea states in the North Atlantic is reviewed using data from both observations and model reanalysis.

Automated summary

Long-term changes of wind-generated ocean waves have significant impacts on marine engineering and coastal management. Natural fluctuations of atmospheric circulation are closely related to the multi-annual variability of wave parameters in the North Atlantic, while anthropogenic climate change is also expected to affect sea states. Disentangling the anthropogenic signal from natural variability is challenging due to short observation periods and significant signal variability.