Evidence for the predictability of changes in the stratospheric aerosol size following volcanic eruptions of diverse magnitudes using space-based instruments

Thomason, Larry W.; Kovilakam, Mahesh; Schmidt, Anja; von Savigny, Christian; Knepp, Travis; Rieger, Landon

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1143-2021

Articles | Volume 21, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1143-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1143-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 21, issue 2

Research article

|

27 Jan 2021

Research article |

| 27 Jan 2021

Evidence for the predictability of changes in the stratospheric aerosol size following volcanic eruptions of diverse magnitudes using space-based instruments

Larry W. Thomason, Mahesh Kovilakam, Anja Schmidt, Christian von Savigny, Travis Knepp, and Landon Rieger

Data sets

SAGE II V7.0 L. W. Thomason https://doi.org/10.5067/ERBS/SAGEII/SOLAR_BINARY_L2-V7.0

SAGE III V5.1 Solar Products L. W. Thomason https://doi.org/10.5067/ISS/SAGEIII/SOLAR_HDF4_L2-V5.1

Global Space-based Stratospheric Aerosol Climatology, V2.0 L. W. Thomason https://doi.org/10.5067/GLOSSAC-L3-V2.0

Short summary

Measurements of the impact of volcanic eruptions on stratospheric aerosol loading by space-based instruments show show a fairly well-behaved relationship between the magnitude and the apparent changes to aerosol size over several orders of magnitude. This directly measured relationship provides a unique opportunity to verify the performance of interactive aerosol models used in climate models.