Articles | Volume 25, issue 19
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-12137-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-12137-2025
Research article
 | 
07 Oct 2025
Research article |  | 07 Oct 2025

Size-resolved process understanding of stratospheric sulfate aerosol following the Pinatubo eruption

Allen Hu, Ziming Ke, Xiaohong Liu, Benjamin Wagman, Hunter Brown, Zheng Lu, Mingxuan Wu, Hailong Wang, Qi Tang, Diana Bull, Kara Peterson, and Shaocheng Xie

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Cited articles

Aubry, T. J., Engwell, S., Bonadonna, C., Carazzo, G., Scollo, S., Van Eaton, A. R., Taylor, I. A., Jessop, D., Eychenne, J., Gouhier, M., Mastin, L. G., Wallace, K. L., Biass, S., Bursik, M., Grainger, R. G., Jellinek, A. M., and Schmidt, A.: The Independent Volcanic Eruption Source Parameter Archive (IVESPA, version 1.0): A new observational database to support explosive eruptive column model validation and development, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 417, 107295, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2021.107295, 2021. 
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Bergman, T., Kerminen, V.-M., Korhonen, H., Lehtinen, K. J., Makkonen, R., Arola, A., Mielonen, T., Romakkaniemi, S., Kulmala, M., and Kokkola, H.: Evaluation of the sectional aerosol microphysics module SALSA implementation in ECHAM5-HAM aerosol-climate model, Geosci. Model Dev., 5, 845–868, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-5-845-2012, 2012. 
Brown, H. Y., Wagman, B., Bull, D., Peterson, K., Hillman, B., Liu, X., Ke, Z., and Lin, L.: Validating a microphysical prognostic stratospheric aerosol implementation in E3SMv2 using observations after the Mount Pinatubo eruption, Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 5087–5121, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-5087-2024, 2024. 
Carn, S.: Multi-Satellite Volcanic Sulfur Dioxide L4 Long-Term Global Database V4, MSVOLSO2L4 [data set], https://doi.org/10.5067/MEASURES/SO2/DATA405, 2022. 
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Short summary
Volcanic eruptions have major effects on atmospheric temperature and can be studied as a proxy for geo-engineering. The original aerosol module in the Energy Exascale Earth System Model v2 (E3SMv2) has problems simulating volcanic aerosols. We alter the aerosol module to simulate the 1991 Pinatubo eruption and implement a more complex chemistry scheme, producing results that better agree with observations. Process analyses of the volcanic aerosols help explain how they grow in the stratosphere.
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