In the model, two processes impact the sea level:
The average sea depth is calculated as:
where is the volumetric mass of water at temperature , is the global-mean ocean temperature, which is supposed to be an average of the global surface temperatures over the previous 100 years , the total sea water mass and the surface of ocean basins.
Assuming that the surface of the ocean basins is constant, we get:
where id the average sea depth if all ice sheets had melted. We take =3.8km ([Herring and Clarke, 1971]).
Therefore:
The fraction is proportional to the area covered between
the latitude and the poles:
. We
alaso assume that ice thickness increases as the latitude of the ice
caps approaches the equator, according to a function in
with a parameter adjusted to meet the constraints summarized
in section 2.1. So: