Unexpectedly High Rise in Sea Level

The explanation is the warm climate. According to NASA, the rapid rise in sea level is mainly due to the fact that seawater takes up more space when it warms up, so-called thermal expansion.

"The increase we saw in 2024 was greater than we expected," says Josh Willis, sea level researcher at NASA, in a press release.

Magnus Hieronymus is the research leader in sea climate at SMHI. He believes that the long-term trend of rising sea levels is driven by climate change, but it is difficult to answer how individual years are affected.

There is so much short-term variability that also plays a role, he says to SVT.

Since 1993, when NASA began its satellite measurements, the annual increase in sea level has more than doubled. In total, the global sea level has risen by 10 centimeters since then.