Scientists found increased rainfall over Australia was responsible for a mysterious dip in sea levels, even though there has been an upward trend.
Between 2010 and 2011 global sea levels went down, even though global warming and melting ice sheets have been causing a prevalent rise for decades, a National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) press release reported.
Researchers determined the phenomenon was caused by three atmospheric patterns, which caused a majority of rainwater to fall in Australia's outback instead of in the ocean.
The terrestrial area is relatively low, and surrounded by mountains. Most of the water that fell there either evaporated or sank into the ground.
Sea levels have risen by over 0.1 inches annually over the past several decades, for 18 months in 2010 the oceans dropped by at least 0.3 inches.
The ocean has since bounced back. In light of Australia's recent drought, sea levels are rising even faster than they were before 2010.
"It's a beautiful illustration of how complicated our climate system is," NCAR scientist John Fasullo, lead author of the study, said. "The smallest continent in the world can affect sea level worldwide. Its influence is so strong that it can temporarily overcome the background trend of rising sea levels that we see with climate change."
To find out what caused the surprising drop, researchers used: NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites, 3,000 free drifting floats that measure the ocean's salinity and temperature, and "satellite-based altimeters that are continuously calibrated against a network of tide gauges."
Using the satellites the researchers noticed the mass of Australia and South America had increased due to heavy rainfall. During this period the oceans had shown a significant drop.
Researchers are still unsure about exactly how the atmospheric patterns create more rainfall in these areas.
"Luckily, we've got great observations now," Fasullo said. "We need to maintain these observing platforms to understand what is a complicated climate system."
