Articles | Volume 23, issue 17
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9725-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9725-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
01 Sep 2023
Research article |
| 01 Sep 2023
| 01 Sep 2023
Stratospheric aerosol size reduction after volcanic eruptions
Felix Wrana
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Institute of Physics, University of Greifswald,
Felix-Hausdorff-Str. 6, 17489 Greifswald, Germany
Ulrike Niemeier
Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Bundesstr. 53, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
Larry W. Thomason
NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, USA
Sandra Wallis
Institute of Physics, University of Greifswald,
Felix-Hausdorff-Str. 6, 17489 Greifswald, Germany
Christian von Savigny
Institute of Physics, University of Greifswald,
Felix-Hausdorff-Str. 6, 17489 Greifswald, Germany
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There is a natural and globally occurring layer of small droplets (aerosols) at roughly 20 km altitude in the atmosphere. In this work, the size of these droplets is calculated from satellite measurements for the years 2002 to 2005, which is important for the aerosol cooling effect on Earth's climate. These years are interesting because there were no large volcanic eruptions that would change the background state of the aerosols. The results are compared to reliable balloon-borne measurements.
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Knowledge of stratospheric aerosol characteristics is important for understanding chemical and climate aerosol feedbacks. Two particle size distribution parameters, the aerosol extinction coefficient and the effective radius, are obtained from SCIAMACHY limb observations. The aerosol characteristics show good agreement with independent data sets from balloon-borne and satellite observations. This data set expands the limited knowledge of stratospheric aerosol characteristics.
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Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 2957–2968, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-2957-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-2957-2025, 2025
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Wolfgang A. Müller, Stephan Lorenz, Trang V. Pham, Andrea Schneidereit, Renate Brokopf, Victor Brovkin, Nils Brüggemann, Fatemeh Chegini, Dietmar Dommenget, Kristina Fröhlich, Barbara Früh, Veronika Gayler, Helmuth Haak, Stefan Hagemann, Moritz Hanke, Tatiana Ilyina, Johann Jungclaus, Martin Köhler, Peter Korn, Luis Kornblüh, Clarissa Kroll, Julian Krüger, Karel Castro-Morales, Ulrike Niemeier, Holger Pohlmann, Iuliia Polkova, Roland Potthast, Thomas Riddick, Manuel Schlund, Tobias Stacke, Roland Wirth, Dakuan Yu, and Jochem Marotzke
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Robert P. Damadeo, Viktoria F. Sofieva, Alexei Rozanov, and Larry W. Thomason
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Comparing different aerosol data sets for scientific studies often requires converting aerosol extinction data between different wavelengths. A common approximation for the spectral behavior of aerosol is the Ångström formula; however, this introduces biases. Using measurements across many different wavelengths from a single instrument, we derive an empirical relationship to both characterize this bias and offer a correction for other studies that may employ this analysis approach.
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Anton Laakso, Daniele Visioni, Ulrike Niemeier, Simone Tilmes, and Harri Kokkola
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Travis N. Knepp, Mahesh Kovilakam, Larry Thomason, and Stephen J. Miller
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2025–2054, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2025-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2025-2024, 2024
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Daniele Visioni, Alan Robock, Jim Haywood, Matthew Henry, Simone Tilmes, Douglas G. MacMartin, Ben Kravitz, Sarah J. Doherty, John Moore, Chris Lennard, Shingo Watanabe, Helene Muri, Ulrike Niemeier, Olivier Boucher, Abu Syed, Temitope S. Egbebiyi, Roland Séférian, and Ilaria Quaglia
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This paper describes a new experimental protocol for the Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP). In it, we describe the details of a new simulation of sunlight reflection using the stratospheric aerosols that climate models are supposed to run, and we explain the reasons behind each choice we made when defining the protocol.
Christian von Savigny, Anna Lange, Christoph G. Hoffmann, and Alexei Rozanov
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 2415–2422, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2415-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2415-2024, 2024
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It is well known that volcanic eruptions strongly affect the colours of the twilight sky. Typically, volcanic eruptions lead to enhanced reddish and violet twilight colours. In rare cases, however, volcanic eruptions can also lead to green sunsets. This study provides an explanation for the occurrence of these unusual green sunsets based on simulations with a radiative transfer model. Green volcanic sunsets require a sufficient stratospheric aerosol optical depth and specific aerosol sizes.
Hauke Schmidt, Sebastian Rast, Jiawei Bao, Amrit Cassim, Shih-Wei Fang, Diego Jimenez-de la Cuesta, Paul Keil, Lukas Kluft, Clarissa Kroll, Theresa Lang, Ulrike Niemeier, Andrea Schneidereit, Andrew I. L. Williams, and Bjorn Stevens
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 1563–1584, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1563-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-1563-2024, 2024
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A recent development in numerical simulations of the global atmosphere is the increase in horizontal resolution to grid spacings of a few kilometers. However, the vertical grid spacing of these models has not been reduced at the same rate as the horizontal grid spacing. Here, we assess the effects of much finer vertical grid spacings, in particular the impacts on cloud quantities and the atmospheric energy balance.
Anna Lange, Alexei Rozanov, and Christian von Savigny
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 14829–14839, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-14829-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-14829-2023, 2023
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We were able to demonstrate quantitatively that the blue colour of the sky cannot be solely attributed to Rayleigh scattering. The influence of ozone on the blue colour of the sky is calculated for different viewing geometries, total ozone columns and an enhanced stratospheric aerosol scenario. Furthermore, the effects of polarisation, surface albedo and observer height are investigated.
John M. C. Plane, Jörg Gumbel, Konstantinos S. Kalogerakis, Daniel R. Marsh, and Christian von Savigny
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 13255–13282, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13255-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13255-2023, 2023
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The mesosphere or lower thermosphere region of the atmosphere borders the edge of space. It is subject to extreme ultraviolet photons and charged particles from the Sun and atmospheric gravity waves from below, which tend to break in this region. The pressure is very low, which facilitates chemistry involving species in excited states, and this is also the region where cosmic dust ablates and injects various metals. The result is a unique and exotic chemistry.
Christoph G. Hoffmann, Lena G. Buth, and Christian von Savigny
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 12781–12799, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-12781-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-12781-2023, 2023
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The Madden–Julian oscillation is an important feature of weather in the tropics. Although it is mainly active in the troposphere, we show that it systematically influences the air temperature in the layers above, up to about 100 km altitude and from pole to pole. We have linked this to another known far-reaching process, interhemispheric coupling. This is basic research on atmospheric couplings and variability but might also be of interest for intraseasonal weather forecasting models.
Larry W. Thomason and Travis Knepp
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 10361–10381, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10361-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10361-2023, 2023
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We examine space-based observations of stratospheric aerosol to infer the presence of episodic smoke perturbations. We find that smoke's optical properties often show a consistent behavior but vary somewhat from event to event. We also find that the rate of smoke events observed in the 1984–2005 period is about half the rate of similar observations in the period from 2017 to the present; however, with such low overall rates, inferring change between the periods is difficult.
Sandra Wallis, Hauke Schmidt, and Christian von Savigny
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 7001–7014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-7001-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-7001-2023, 2023
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Strong volcanic eruptions are able to alter the temperature and the circulation of the middle atmosphere. This study simulates the atmospheric response to an idealized strong tropical eruption and focuses on the impact on the mesosphere. The simulations show a warming of the polar summer mesopause in the first November after the eruption. Our study indicates that this is mainly due to dynamical coupling in the summer hemisphere with a potential contribution from interhemispheric coupling.
Mahesh Kovilakam, Larry Thomason, and Travis Knepp
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2709–2731, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2709-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2709-2023, 2023
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The paper describes SAGE III/ISS aerosol/cloud categorization and its implications on Global Space-based Stratospheric Aerosol Climatology (GloSSAC). The presence of data from the SAGE type of multi-wavelength measurements is important in GloSSAC. The new aerosol/cloud categorization method described in this paper will help retain more measurements, particularly in the lower stratosphere during and following a volcanic event and other processes.
Daniele Visioni, Ben Kravitz, Alan Robock, Simone Tilmes, Jim Haywood, Olivier Boucher, Mark Lawrence, Peter Irvine, Ulrike Niemeier, Lili Xia, Gabriel Chiodo, Chris Lennard, Shingo Watanabe, John C. Moore, and Helene Muri
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 5149–5176, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5149-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-5149-2023, 2023
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Geoengineering indicates methods aiming to reduce the temperature of the planet by means of reflecting back a part of the incoming radiation before it reaches the surface or allowing more of the planetary radiation to escape into space. It aims to produce modelling experiments that are easy to reproduce and compare with different climate models, in order to understand the potential impacts of these techniques. Here we assess its past successes and failures and talk about its future.
Yangxin Chen, Duoying Ji, Qian Zhang, John C. Moore, Olivier Boucher, Andy Jones, Thibaut Lurton, Michael J. Mills, Ulrike Niemeier, Roland Séférian, and Simone Tilmes
Earth Syst. Dynam., 14, 55–79, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-14-55-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-14-55-2023, 2023
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Solar geoengineering has been proposed as a way of counteracting the warming effects of increasing greenhouse gases by reflecting solar radiation. This work shows that solar geoengineering can slow down the northern-high-latitude permafrost degradation but cannot preserve the permafrost ecosystem as that under a climate of the same warming level without solar geoengineering.
Ilaria Quaglia, Claudia Timmreck, Ulrike Niemeier, Daniele Visioni, Giovanni Pitari, Christina Brodowsky, Christoph Brühl, Sandip S. Dhomse, Henning Franke, Anton Laakso, Graham W. Mann, Eugene Rozanov, and Timofei Sukhodolov
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 921–948, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-921-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-921-2023, 2023
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The last very large explosive volcanic eruption we have measurements for is the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991. It is therefore often used as a benchmark for climate models' ability to reproduce these kinds of events. Here, we compare available measurements with the results from multiple experiments conducted with climate models interactively simulating the aerosol cloud formation.
Christian von Savigny, Anna Lange, Anne Hemkendreis, Christoph G. Hoffmann, and Alexei Rozanov
Clim. Past, 18, 2345–2356, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-2345-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-2345-2022, 2022
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This study investigates the possibility of inferring information on aerosol optical depth from photographs of historic paintings. The idea – which has been applied in previous studies – is very interesting because it would provide an archive of the atmospheric aerosol loading covering many centuries. We show that twilight colours depend not only on the aerosol optical thickness, but also on several other parameters, making a quantitative estimate of aerosol optical depth very difficult.
Travis N. Knepp, Larry Thomason, Mahesh Kovilakam, Jason Tackett, Jayanta Kar, Robert Damadeo, and David Flittner
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 5235–5260, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5235-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5235-2022, 2022
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We used aerosol profiles from the SAGE III/ISS instrument to develop an aerosol classification method that was tested on four case-study events (two volcanic, two fire) and supported with CALIOP aerosol products. The method worked well in identifying smoke and volcanic aerosol in the stratosphere for these events. Raikoke is presented as a demonstration of the limitations of this method.
Sandra Wallis, Christoph Gregor Hoffmann, and Christian von Savigny
Ann. Geophys., 40, 421–431, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-40-421-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-40-421-2022, 2022
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Although the 1991 eruption of Mt Pinatubo had a severe impact on Earth's climate, the effect of this event on the mesosphere is not well understood. We investigated satellite-borne temperature measurements from the HALOE instrument and found indications that a positive temperature anomaly is present in the tropical upper mesosphere at the beginning of the HALOE time series, which may be related to the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo.
Anna Lange, Gerd Baumgarten, Alexei Rozanov, and Christian von Savigny
Ann. Geophys., 40, 407–419, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-40-407-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-40-407-2022, 2022
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We investigate the influence of different parameters on the colour of noctilucent clouds (highest clouds in the atmosphere), using radiative transfer calculations. We determined the effect of the particle size, optical depth, single scattering/multiple scattering and ozone. For sufficiently large optical depth and for specific viewing geometries, ozone plays only a minor role in the blueish colour of noctilucent clouds (new result).
Mireia Papke Chica, Valerian Hahn, Tiziana Braeuer, Elena de la Torre Castro, Florian Ewald, Mathias Gergely, Simon Kirschler, Luca Bugliaro Goggia, Stefanie Knobloch, Martina Kraemer, Johannes Lucke, Johanna Mayer, Raphael Maerkl, Manuel Moser, Laura Tomsche, Tina Jurkat-Witschas, Martin Zoeger, Christian von Savigny, and Christiane Voigt
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2022-255, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2022-255, 2022
Preprint withdrawn
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The mixed-phase temperature regime in convective clouds challenges our understanding of microphysical and radiative cloud properties. We provide a rare and unique dataset of aircraft in situ measurements in a strong mid-latitude convective system. We find that mechanisms initiating ice nucleation and growth strongly depend on temperature, relative humidity, and vertical velocity and variate within the measured system, resulting in altitude dependent changes of the cloud liquid and ice fraction.
Simone Tilmes, Daniele Visioni, Andy Jones, James Haywood, Roland Séférian, Pierre Nabat, Olivier Boucher, Ewa Monica Bednarz, and Ulrike Niemeier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 4557–4579, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4557-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4557-2022, 2022
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This study assesses the impacts of climate interventions, using stratospheric sulfate aerosol and solar dimming on stratospheric ozone, based on three Earth system models with interactive stratospheric chemistry. The climate interventions have been applied to a high emission (baseline) scenario in order to reach global surface temperatures of a medium emission scenario. We find significant increases and decreases in total column ozone, depending on regions and seasons.
Julia Koch, Adam Bourassa, Nick Lloyd, Chris Roth, and Christian von Savigny
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 3191–3202, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3191-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3191-2022, 2022
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The mesopause, the region of the earth's atmosphere between 85 and 100 km, is hard to access by direct measurements. Therefore we look for parameters that can be measured using satellite or ground-based measurements. In this study we researched sodium airglow, a phenomenon that occurs when sodium atoms are excited by chemical reactions. We compared satellite measurements of the airglow and resulting sodium concentration profiles to gain a better understanding of the sodium in that region.
Andy Jones, Jim M. Haywood, Adam A. Scaife, Olivier Boucher, Matthew Henry, Ben Kravitz, Thibaut Lurton, Pierre Nabat, Ulrike Niemeier, Roland Séférian, Simone Tilmes, and Daniele Visioni
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 2999–3016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2999-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2999-2022, 2022
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Simulations by six Earth-system models of geoengineering by introducing sulfuric acid aerosols into the tropical stratosphere are compared. A robust impact on the northern wintertime North Atlantic Oscillation is found, exacerbating precipitation reduction over parts of southern Europe. In contrast, the models show no consistency with regard to impacts on the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation, although results do indicate a risk that the oscillation could become locked into a permanent westerly phase.
Debra K. Weisenstein, Daniele Visioni, Henning Franke, Ulrike Niemeier, Sandro Vattioni, Gabriel Chiodo, Thomas Peter, and David W. Keith
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 2955–2973, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2955-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2955-2022, 2022
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This paper explores a potential method of geoengineering that could be used to slow the rate of change of climate over decadal scales. We use three climate models to explore how injections of accumulation-mode sulfuric acid aerosol change the large-scale stratospheric particle size distribution and radiative forcing response for the chosen scenarios. Radiative forcing per unit sulfur injected and relative to the change in aerosol burden is larger with particulate than with SO2 injections.
Anton Laakso, Ulrike Niemeier, Daniele Visioni, Simone Tilmes, and Harri Kokkola
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 93–118, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-93-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-93-2022, 2022
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The use of different spatio-temporal sulfur injection strategies with different magnitudes to create an artificial reflective aerosol layer to cool the climate is studied using sectional and modal aerosol schemes in a climate model. There are significant differences in the results depending on the aerosol microphysical module used. Different spatio-temporal injection strategies have a significant impact on the magnitude and zonal distribution of radiative forcing and atmospheric dynamics.
Elizaveta Malinina, Alexei Rozanov, Ulrike Niemeier, Sandra Wallis, Carlo Arosio, Felix Wrana, Claudia Timmreck, Christian von Savigny, and John P. Burrows
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 14871–14891, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-14871-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-14871-2021, 2021
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In the paper, changes in the stratospheric aerosol loading after the 2018 Ambae eruption were analyzed using OMPS-LP observations. The eruption was also simulated with the MAECHAM5-HAM global climate model. Generally, the model and observations agree very well. We attribute the good consistency of the results to a precisely determined altitude and mass of the volcanic injection, as well as nudging of the meteorological data. The radiative forcing from the eruption was estimated to be −0.13 W m−2.
Daniele Visioni, Douglas G. MacMartin, Ben Kravitz, Olivier Boucher, Andy Jones, Thibaut Lurton, Michou Martine, Michael J. Mills, Pierre Nabat, Ulrike Niemeier, Roland Séférian, and Simone Tilmes
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 10039–10063, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10039-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10039-2021, 2021
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A new set of simulations is used to investigate commonalities, differences and sources of uncertainty when simulating the injection of SO2 in the stratosphere in order to mitigate the effects of climate change (solar geoengineering). The models differ in how they simulate the aerosols and how they spread around the stratosphere, resulting in differences in projected regional impacts. Overall, however, the models agree that aerosols have the potential to mitigate the warming produced by GHGs.
Henning Franke, Ulrike Niemeier, and Daniele Visioni
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 8615–8635, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-8615-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-8615-2021, 2021
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Stratospheric aerosol modification (SAM) can alter the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO). Our simulations with two different models show that the characteristics of the QBO response are primarily determined by the meridional structure of the aerosol-induced heating. Therefore, the QBO response to SAM depends primarily on the location of injection, while injection type and rate act to scale the specific response. Our results have important implications for evaluating adverse side effects of SAM.
Nellie Wullenweber, Anna Lange, Alexei Rozanov, and Christian von Savigny
Clim. Past, 17, 969–983, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-969-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-969-2021, 2021
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This study investigates the physical processes leading to the rare phenomenon of the sun appearing blue or green. The phenomenon is caused by anomalous scattering by, e.g., volcanic or forest fire aerosols. Unlike most other studies, our study includes a full treatment of the effect of Rayleigh scattering on the colour of the sun. We investigate different factors and revisit a historic example, i.e. the Canadian forest fires in 1950, that led to blue sun events in different European countries.
Felix Wrana, Christian von Savigny, Jacob Zalach, and Larry W. Thomason
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 2345–2357, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2345-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2345-2021, 2021
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In this paper, we describe a new method for calculating the size of naturally occurring droplets (aerosols) made mostly of sulfuric acid and water that can be found roughly at 20 km altitude in the atmosphere. We use data from the instrument SAGE III/ISS that is mounted on the International Space Station. We show that our method works well, and that the size parameters we calculate are reasonable and can be a valuable addition for a better understanding of aerosols and their effect on climate.
Ben Kravitz, Douglas G. MacMartin, Daniele Visioni, Olivier Boucher, Jason N. S. Cole, Jim Haywood, Andy Jones, Thibaut Lurton, Pierre Nabat, Ulrike Niemeier, Alan Robock, Roland Séférian, and Simone Tilmes
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 4231–4247, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-4231-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-4231-2021, 2021
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This study investigates multi-model response to idealized geoengineering (high CO2 with solar reduction) across two different generations of climate models. We find that, with the exception of a few cases, the results are unchanged between the different generations. This gives us confidence that broad conclusions about the response to idealized geoengineering are robust.
Ulrike Niemeier, Felix Riede, and Claudia Timmreck
Clim. Past, 17, 633–652, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-633-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-633-2021, 2021
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The 13 kyr BP Laacher See eruption impacted local environments, human communities and climate. We have simulated the evolution of its fine ash and sulfur cloud such that it reflects the empirically known ash distribution. In our models, the heating of the ash causes a mesocyclone which changes the dispersion of the cloud itself, resulting in enhanced transport to low latitudes. This may partially explain why no Laacher See ash has yet been found in Greenlandic ice cores.
Margot Clyne, Jean-Francois Lamarque, Michael J. Mills, Myriam Khodri, William Ball, Slimane Bekki, Sandip S. Dhomse, Nicolas Lebas, Graham Mann, Lauren Marshall, Ulrike Niemeier, Virginie Poulain, Alan Robock, Eugene Rozanov, Anja Schmidt, Andrea Stenke, Timofei Sukhodolov, Claudia Timmreck, Matthew Toohey, Fiona Tummon, Davide Zanchettin, Yunqian Zhu, and Owen B. Toon
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 3317–3343, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-3317-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-3317-2021, 2021
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This study finds how and why five state-of-the-art global climate models with interactive stratospheric aerosols differ when simulating the aftermath of large volcanic injections as part of the Model Intercomparison Project on the climatic response to Volcanic forcing (VolMIP). We identify and explain the consequences of significant disparities in the underlying physics and chemistry currently in some of the models, which are problems likely not unique to the models participating in this study.
Ghassan Taha, Robert Loughman, Tong Zhu, Larry Thomason, Jayanta Kar, Landon Rieger, and Adam Bourassa
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 1015–1036, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1015-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1015-2021, 2021
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This work describes the newly released OMPS LP aerosol extinction profile multi-wavelength Version 2.0 algorithm and dataset. It is shown that the V2.0 aerosols exhibit significant improvements in OMPS LP retrieval performance in the Southern Hemisphere and at lower altitudes. The new product is compared to the SAGE III/ISS, OSIRIS and CALIPSO missions and shown to be of good quality and suitable for scientific studies.
Larry W. Thomason, Mahesh Kovilakam, Anja Schmidt, Christian von Savigny, Travis Knepp, and Landon Rieger
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 1143–1158, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1143-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1143-2021, 2021
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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.
Lukas O. Muser, Gholam Ali Hoshyaripour, Julia Bruckert, Ákos Horváth, Elizaveta Malinina, Sandra Wallis, Fred J. Prata, Alexei Rozanov, Christian von Savigny, Heike Vogel, and Bernhard Vogel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 15015–15036, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15015-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15015-2020, 2020
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Volcanic aerosols endanger aircraft and thus disrupt air travel globally. For aviation safety, it is vital to know the location and lifetime of such aerosols in the atmosphere. Here we show that the interaction of volcanic particles with each other eventually reduces their atmospheric lifetime. Moreover, we demonstrate that sunlight heats these particles, which lifts them several kilometers in the atmosphere. These findings support a more reliable forecast of volcanic aerosol dispersion.
Juan-Carlos Antuña-Marrero, Graham W. Mann, Philippe Keckhut, Sergey Avdyushin, Bruno Nardi, and Larry W. Thomason
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 2843–2851, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2843-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2843-2020, 2020
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We report the recovery of lidar measurements of the 1991 Pinatubo eruption. Two Soviet ships crossing the tropical Atlantic in July–September 1991 and January–February 1992 measured the vertical profile of the Pinatubo cloud at different points in its spatio-temporal evolution. The datasets provide valuable new information on the eruption's impacts on climate, with the SAGE-II satellite measurements not able to measure most of the lower half of the Pinatubo cloud in the tropics in this period.
Mahesh Kovilakam, Larry W. Thomason, Nicholas Ernest, Landon Rieger, Adam Bourassa, and Luis Millán
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 2607–2634, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2607-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2607-2020, 2020
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A robust stratospheric aerosol climatology is important as many global climate models (GCMs) make use of observed aerosol properties to prescribe aerosols in the stratosphere. Here, we present version 2.0 of the GloSSAC data set in which a new methodology is used for the post-2005 data that improves the quality of data in the lower stratosphere, which includes an improved 1020 nm extinction. Additionally, size information from multiwavelength measurements of SAGE III/ISS is provided.
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Short summary
The stratospheric aerosol layer is a naturally occurring and permanent layer of aerosol, in this case very small droplets of mostly sulfuric acid and water, that has a cooling effect on our climate. To quantify this effect and for our general understanding of stratospheric microphysical processes, knowledge of the size of those aerosol particles is needed. Using satellite measurements and atmospheric models we show that some volcanic eruptions can lead to on average smaller aerosol sizes.
The stratospheric aerosol layer is a naturally occurring and permanent layer of aerosol, in this...
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