Description
Estimates future increases in sea level projected to occur due to increasing global mean temperature (GMT).
Input variables
- Increase in global mean temperature (GMT) above base year (from Climate module)
Key assumptions
This module is based on a linear algorithm developed by Rahmstorf, based on extrapolating from increases in temperature and sea level that occurred from 1881-2001.
This approach was chosen because, according to Rahmstorf the "capability for calculating future sea-level changes...with present physics based models is very limited."
The key parameter values for the module are:
- Baseline annual increase in sea level of 3.4 millimeters for each degree Celsius by which GMT in that year exceeds pre-industrial levels (C-LEARN uses this baseline parameter in all of its outputs).
- User-specified parameter which enables adjustment of baseline annual increase to take into account faster or slower ice sheet melt (this parameter is adjustable in C-ROADS but not in C-LEARN).
Parameter value of 1 doubles annual sea level increase per degree of increase in GMT to 6.8 mm per degree Celsius.
Parameter value of -1 reduces annual sea level increase to 0 mm.
Note: For technical reasons, the sea level rise outputs in the launch version of the Collaboratorium are calcuated from a database that is separate from C-LEARN, but which employs identical assumptions.
Output variables
- Cumulative increase in sea level above baseline year
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