Observations of the eruption of the Sarychev volcano and simulations using the HadGEM2 climate model

Abstract

[1] In June 2009 the Sarychev volcano located in the Kuril Islands to the northeast of Japan erupted explosively, injecting ash and an estimated 1.2 ± 0.2 Tg of sulfur dioxide into the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere, making it arguably one of the 10 largest stratospheric injections in the last 50 years. During the period immediately after the eruption, we show that the sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) cloud was clearly detected by retrievals developed for the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) satellite instrument and that the resultant stratospheric sulfate aerosol was detected by the Optical Spectrograph and Infrared Imaging System (OSIRIS) limb sounder and CALIPSO lidar. Additional surface-based instrumentation allows assessment of the impact of the eruption on the stratospheric aerosol optical depth. We use a nudged version of the HadGEM2 climate model to investigate how well this state-of-the-science climate model can replicate the distributions of SO 2 and sulfate aerosol. The model simulations and OSIRIS measurements suggest that in the Northern Hemisphere the stratospheric aerosol optical depth was enhanced by around a factor of 3 (0.01 at 550 nm), with resultant impacts upon the radiation budget. The simulations indicate that, in the Northern Hemisphere for July 2009, the magnitude of the mean radiative impact from the volcanic aerosols is more than 60% of the direct radiative forcing of all anthropogenic aerosols put together. While the cooling induced by the eruption will likely not be detectable in the observational record, the combination of modeling and measurements would provide an ideal framework for simulating future larger volcanic eruptions.Citation: Haywood, J. M., et al. (2010), Observations of the eruption of the Sarychev volcano and simulations using the HadGEM2 climate model,

Composition and evolution of volcanic aerosol from eruptions of Kasatochi, Sarychev and Eyjafjallajökull in 2008–2010 based on CARIBIC observations

“…The residence time of SO 2 following the Sarychev eruption has been estimated to 11 days (Haywood et al, 2010). Thus there is a large spread in estimated residence times.…”

“…Haywood et al (2010) argue that the detection limit of the IASI satellite measurements could lead to somewhat underestimated residence time (up to 50 %). Measurements following the Kasatochi eruption based on particle detection by OSIRIS on board the satellite Odin corresponded to a SO 2 residence time of approximately 30 days .…”

“…In addition, these samples show less elevation in their S/O 3 ratio than the samples following Sarychev and Kasatochi. The eruptions of Sarychev and Kasatochi emitted approximately 1.2 Tg (Haywood et al, 2010) and 2 Tg of SO 2 , respectively, into the atmosphere which can be compared to only 0.08 Tg by the eruption of Redoubt (Lopez et al, 2009). It is thus unlikely that the sulphate aerosol produced by the Redoubt eruption had large enough influence for a clear identification in sampled aerosol.…”

An update on polar aerosol optical properties using POLAR-AOD and other measurements performed during the International Polar Year

“…Omitting the monthly mean values of AOD(500 nm) affected by the Kasatochi and Sarychev particle extinction, a best-fit value of k ¼ þ1.0% y À1 was found. Therefore, the daily mean values of AOD were first adjusted for the stratospheric volcanic AOD due to the Kasatochi and Sarychev volcanic particles present in the stratosphere during the summer months of 2008 and 2009, respectively: the daily values of stratospheric AOD were determined according to the monthly mean estimates of this quantity obtained by Kravitz et al (2010) for Kasatochi eruption, and by Kravitz et al (2011) and Haywood et al (2010) for Sarychev episode, on the basis of both satellite-borne observations and climate model simulations. For such adjusted monthly mean values of AOD, a lower value of k ¼ þ0.4% y À1 was found.…”

Model simulations of the chemical and aerosol microphysical evolution of the Sarychev Peak 2009 eruption cloud compared to in-situ and satellite observations

“…The timing of the SO 2 emissions is based on SO 2 satellite retrievals from IASI (Clarisse et al, 2012;Carn et al, 2016;Carboni et al, 2016), 25 MODIS (MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) (Rybin et al, 2011;Realmuto and Berk, 2016), and OMI (Ozone Monitoring Instrument) (Theys et al, 2015) which all show that the majority of high altitude SO 2 was released on the 15 th (and possibly in the early morning of the 16 th ). Haywood et al (2010) used a total injection mass of 1.2 Tg SO 2 , which was the SO 2 total mass value retrieved on 16 June with IASI. An update of the SO 2 algorithm (Clarisse et al, 2012) found a maximum SO 2 mass value of around 0.9 Tg; a value which was confirmed with subsequent updates of that algorithm (Carn et al, 2016).…”