Climatic response to high‐latitude volcanic eruptions

Oman, Luke D.; Robock, Alan; Stenchikov, Georgiy L.; Schmidt, Gavin A.; Ruedy, R.

doi:10.1029/2004jd005487

Cited by 172 publications

(200 citation statements)

References 32 publications

(50 reference statements)

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“…The forcing from volcanic eruptions tends to cool the tropics but produces some continental warming in the winter, similar in spatial pattern to a shift towards the positive phase of the Arctic Oscillation in the Northern Hemisphere (Stenchikov et al, 2006;Oman et al, 2005;Shindell et al, 2004). It has also been observed in the paleoclimate record that a multi-year, El Niño-like response can be induced in the atmosphere-ocean system as a response to explosive tropical volcanic eruptions (Adams et al, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…This response is due to the eruptions' injection of large amounts of sulfate aerosols into the stratosphere, which increases the amount of incoming solar radiation reflected back out to space at the top of the atmosphere. Although stratospheric aerosols tend to mix relatively quickly in the atmosphere (less than a few months), tropical eruptions tend to have greater climate impacts than high-latitude ones, due to both longer residence times of their aerosols as well as an apparent stronger dynamic response (Oman et al, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Volcano impacts on climate and biogeochemistry in a coupled carbon–climate model

et al. 2012

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Abstract. Volcanic eruptions induce a dynamical response in the climate system characterized by short-term global reductions in both surface temperature and precipitation, as well as a response in biogeochemistry. The available observations of these responses to volcanic eruptions, such as to Pinatubo, provide a valuable method to compare against model simulations. Here, the Community Climate System Model Version 3 (CCSM3) reproduces the physical climate response to volcanic eruptions in a realistic way, as compared to direct observations from the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo. The model's biogeochemical response to eruptions is smaller in magnitude than observed, but because of the lack of observations, it is not clear why or where the modeled carbon response is not strong enough. Comparison to other models suggests that this model response is much weaker over tropical land; however, the precipitation response in other models is not accurate, suggesting that other models could be getting the right response for the wrong reason. The underestimated carbon response in the model compared to observations could also be due to the ash and lava input of biogeochemically important species to the ocean, which are not included in the simulation. A statistically significant reduction in the simulated carbon dioxide growth rate is seen at the 90 % level in the average of 12 large eruptions over the period 1870-2000, and the net uptake of carbon is primarily concentrated in the tropics, with large spatial variability. In addition, a method for computing the volcanic response in model output without using a control ensemble is tested against a traditional methodology using two separate ensembles of runs; the method is found to produce similar results in the global average. These results suggest that not only is simulating volcanoes a good test of coupled carbon-climate models, but also that this test can be performed without a control simulation in cases where it is not practical to run separate ensembles with and without volcanic eruptions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Volcano impacts on climate and biogeochemistry in a coupled carbon–climate model

et al. 2012

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“…The processes leading to El Niño-like anomalies in response to high-latitude eruptions are thus very different from those hypothesized to act in response to tropical eruptions (25,26) and rely on better-understood mechanisms (19,20). Only a few modeling studies (27)(28)(29)(30) have investigated the climate impacts of high-latitude volcanic eruptions, and none has looked at a potential influence on ENSO. Oman et al (29), using an atmospheric model coupled to a mixed-layer ocean, found a weakening of the summer monsoon circulation and precipitation over Africa and Asia in the summer of the eruption, consistent with our findings.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of high-latitude volcanic eruptions on ENSO and AMOC

Pausata

Chafik

Caballero

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

151

161

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Large volcanic eruptions can have major impacts on global climate, affecting both atmospheric and ocean circulation through changes in atmospheric chemical composition and optical properties. The residence time of volcanic aerosol from strong eruptions is roughly 2-3 y. Attention has consequently focused on their short-term impacts, whereas the long-term, ocean-mediated response has not been well studied. Most studies have focused on tropical eruptions; high-latitude eruptions have drawn less attention because their impacts are thought to be merely hemispheric rather than global. No study to date has investigated the long-term effects of high-latitude eruptions. Here, we use a climate model to show that large summer high-latitude eruptions in the Northern Hemisphere cause strong hemispheric cooling, which could induce an El Niño-like anomaly, in the equatorial Pacific during the first 8-9 mo after the start of the eruption. The hemispherically asymmetric cooling shifts the Intertropical Convergence Zone southward, triggering a weakening of the trade winds over the western and central equatorial Pacific that favors the development of an El Niño-like anomaly. In the model used here, the specified high-latitude eruption also leads to a strengthening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) in the first 25 y after the eruption, followed by a weakening lasting at least 35 y. The long-lived changes in the AMOC strength also alter the variability of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO).high-latitude volcanic eruptions | AMOC-ENSO interaction | volcanism P roxy data (1, 2) suggest that the strong reduction of surface insolation over the tropics associated with tropical volcanic eruptions may increase the likelihood of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and a consequent reduction of the zonal sea surface temperature (SST) gradient along the equatorial Pacific. Modeling studies do not yield consistent results and show both an El Niño-like (3-5) or La Niña-like (6, 7) anomalies following a tropical eruption. Recent studies have also suggested that volcanic eruptions can have a large imprint on ocean circulation, affecting the strength of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) (8-12) on 5-to 20-y timescales and inducing ocean heat content (OHC) anomalies (13, 14) that may persist for decades. However, this slow recovery has been questioned and may be an artifact of experimental design (15). Furthermore, all previous work on the climate impact of volcanic eruptions has focused on tropical volcanoes; no studies have addressed the potential effects of high-latitude eruptions on ENSO. Here, we use a coupled atmospheric-ocean-aerosol model 17)] to identify the mechanisms by which high-latitude volcanic eruptions can impact ENSO behavior in both the short term (up to 2-3 y) and long term (approximately half-century), the latter being mediated by volcano-induced changes in ocean circulation.We simulate an extreme high-latitude multistage eruption starting on June 1st. We inject 100 Tg of SO...

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“…The shifting of ITCZ has been discussed in not only Arctic geoengineering studies, but also in various other studies that investigate the effects of extra-tropical forcing such as high latitude sea ice cover changes (Chiang and Bitz 2005), high latitude volcanic eruptions (Oman et al 2005;Robock et al 2008;Haywood et al 2013), boreal deforestation (Devaraju et al 2015), high latitude ice sheets corresponding to the glacial periods (Broccoli et al 2006) and hemispherical asymmetries in clear-sky albedo (Voigt et al 2014). One of the effects associated with ITCZ shift is the change in cross-equatorial heat transport Frierson and Hwang 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A larger warming, relative to the scenario without geoengineering, was simulated in Northern India and Africa during summer due to weakening of monsoon circulation and reduction in cloud cover. The weaker monsoon circulation is due to a reduced temperature gradient between Indian Ocean and Asia (Oman et al 2005;Graf et al 1992), resulting in a large reduction in summer monsoon precipitation, for India, China, Sahel and Japan. Haywood et al (2013) simulated reduced precipitation in Sahel when geoengineering is implemented in the northern hemisphere (NH).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Arctic geoengineering on precipitation in the tropical monsoon regions

2017

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due to Arctic geoengineering, but there is still a residual precipitation increase (up to 7%) in most monsoon regions associated with the residual CO 2 induced warming in the tropics. The ITCZ shift due to our Global geoengineering simulation, where aerosols (20 Mt) are prescribed uniformly around the globe, is much smaller and the precipitation changes in most monsoon regions are within ±2% as the residual CO 2 -induced warming in the tropics is also much less than in Arctic and Polar geoengineering. Further, global geoengineering nearly offsets the Arctic warming. Based on our results we infer that Arctic geoengineering leads to ITCZ shift and leaves residual CO 2 induced warming in the tropics resulting in substantial precipitation decreases (increases) in the Northern (Southern) hemisphere monsoon regions.

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Climatic response to high‐latitude volcanic eruptions

Cited by 172 publications

References 32 publications

Volcano impacts on climate and biogeochemistry in a coupled carbon–climate model

Volcano impacts on climate and biogeochemistry in a coupled carbon–climate model

Impacts of high-latitude volcanic eruptions on ENSO and AMOC

Effects of Arctic geoengineering on precipitation in the tropical monsoon regions

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