Nuclear Winter" is the term given to hypothesized cooling in the northern hemisphere following a nuclear war due to injection of smoke from burning cities into the atmosphere. The voluminous literature on this subject produced since the original paper in 1983 by Turco, Toon, Ackerman, Pollack, and Sagen (TTAPS) has been reviewed. The widespread use of 3dimensional global circulation models have resulted in reduced estimates of cooling; 15-25 deg. C. for a summer war and a few degrees for a winter war. More serious may be the possibility of suppression of convective precipitation by the altered temperature profiles in the atmosphere. However, very large uncertainties remain in input parameters, the models, and the results of calculations,We believe the state of knowledge about nuclear winter is sufficiently developed to conclude: o Neither cold nor drought are likely to be direct threats to human survival for populations with the wherewithal to survive normal January temperatures.
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