Icebergs float in Baffin Bay near Pituffik, Greenland. (Photo: AFP/VNA)

A NASA-led analysis, based on 30 years of satellite observations beginning in the early 1990s, shows that sea levels have risen by some 9.4cm since 1993.

Nadya Vinogradova Shiffer, director for the NASA sea level change team and the ocean physics program in Washington said the current rates of acceleration mean that people are on track to add another 20 cm of global mean sea level by 2050. That would be double the amount of change in the next three decades compared to the previous century, creating a future where flooding is far more frequent and catastrophic than today, she said. 

The immediate cause of the spike is the El Nino weather effect, which replaced the La Nina in the last two years. In particular, La Nina causes ocean temperatures to be cooler than normal in the equatorial Pacific. El Nino involves warmer-than-average ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific.