Centennial-scale climate change from decadally-paced explosive volcanism: a coupled sea ice-ocean mechanism

Northern Hemisphere summer cooling through the Holocene is largely driven by the steady decrease in summer insolation tied to the precession of the equinoxes. However, centennial-scale climate departures, such as the Little Ice Age, must be caused by other forcings, most likely explosive volcanism and changes in solar irradiance. Stratospheric volcanic aerosols have the stronger forcing, but their short residence time likely precludes a lasting climate impact from a single eruption. Decadally paced explosive volcanism may produce a greater climate impact because the long response time of ocean surface waters allows for a cumulative decrease in sea-surface temperatures that exceeds that of any single eruption. Here we use a global climate model to evaluate the potential long-term climate impacts from four decadally paced large tropical eruptions. Direct forcing results in a rapid expansion of Arctic Ocean sea ice that persists throughout the eruption period. The expanded sea ice increases the flux of sea ice exported to the northern North Atlantic long enough that it reduces the convective warming of surface waters in the subpolar North Atlantic. In two of our four simulations the cooler surface waters being advected into the Arctic Ocean reduced the rate of basal sea-ice melt in the Atlantic sector of the Arctic Ocean, allowing sea ice to remain in an expanded state for?>?100 model years after volcanic aerosols were removed from the stratosphere. In these simulations the coupled sea ice-ocean mechanism maintains the strong positive feedbacks of an expanded Arctic Ocean sea ice cover, allowing the initial cooling related to the direct effect of volcanic aerosols to be perpetuated, potentially resulting in a centennial-scale or longer change of state in Arctic climate. The fact that the sea ice-ocean mechanism was not established in two of our four simulations suggests that a long-term sea ice response to volcanic forcing is sensitive to the stability of the seawater column, wind, and ocean currents in the North Atlantic during the eruptions.     

Pinatubo eruption winter climate effects: model versus observations

Large volcanic eruptions, in addition to the well-known effect of producing global cooling for a year or two, have been observed to produce shorterterm responses in the climate system involving non-linear dynamical processes. In this study, we use the ECHAM2 general circulation model forced with stratospheric aerosols to test some of these ideas. Run in a perpetual-January mode, with tropical stratospheric heating from the volcanic aerosols typical of the 1982 El Chichón eruption or the 1991 Pinatubo eruption, we find a dynamical response with an increased polar night jet in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) and stronger zonal winds which extend down into the troposphere. The Azores High shifts northward with increased tropospheric westerlies at 60°N and increased easterlies at 30°N. Surface temperatures are higher both in northern Eurasia and North America, in agreement with observations for the NH winters of 1982–83 and 1991–92 as well as the winters following the other 10 largest volcanic eruptions since 1883.This paper was presented at the Second International Conference on Modelling of Global Climate Variability, held in Hamburg 7–11 September 1992 under the auspices of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology. Guest Editor for these papers is L. Dümenil     

Meteorological responses to Mt. Baekdu volcanic eruption over east asia in an offline global climate-chemistry model: A pilot study

We examine the meteorological responses due to the probable eruption of Mt. Baekdu using an off-line Climate-Chemistry model that is composed of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Climate Atmosphere Model version 3 (CAM3) and a global chemistry transport model (GEOS-Chem). Using the aerosol dataset from the GEOS-Chem driven by GEOS-5 meteorology, experiment and control simulations of the climate model are performed and their meteorological differences between the two simulations are analyzed. The magnitudes of volcanic eruption and column injection height were presumably set to 1/200 of the Mt. Pinatubo eruption and 9 km, respectively. Significant temperature drop in the lower troposphere (850 hPa), which is mainly due to a direct effect of prescribed volcanic aerosols from Mt. Baekdu, has been simulated up to about ?4 K. The upper atmosphere (150 hPa) right above the volcano, however, shows significant warming due to the absorption of the infrared radiation by volcanic aerosols. As a result of the volcanic eruption in the climate model, wave-like patterns are shown in both the geopotential height and horizontal wind. The changes in the lower atmospheric temperature are well associated with the modification of the atmospheric circulation through the hydrostatic balance. In spite of limitations in our current simulations due to several underlying assumptions, our results could give a clue to understanding the meteorological impacts from Mt. Baekdu eruptions that are currently attracting considerable public attention.     

Twentieth century North Atlantic climate change. Part II: Understanding the effect of Indian Ocean warming

Ensembles of atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) experiments are used in an effort to understand the boreal winter Northern Hemisphere (NH) extratropical climate response to the observed warming of tropical sea surface temperatures (SSTs) over the last half of the twentieth Century. Specifically, we inquire about the origins of unusual, if not unprecedented, changes in the wintertime North Atlantic and European climate that are well described by a linear trend in most indices of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). The simulated NH atmospheric response to the linear trend component of tropic-wide SST change since 1950 projects strongly onto the positive polarity of the NAO and is a hemispheric pattern distinguished by decreased (increased) Arctic (middle latitude) sea level pressure. Progressive warming of the Indian Ocean is the principal contributor to this wintertime extratropical response, as shown through additional AGCM ensembles forced with only the SST trend in that sector. The Indian Ocean influence is further established through the reproducibility of results across three different models forced with identical, idealized patterns of the observed warming. Examination of the transient atmospheric adjustment to a sudden “switch-on” of an Indian Ocean SST anomaly reveals that the North Atlantic response is not consistent with linear theory and most likely involves synoptic eddy feedbacks associated with changes in the North Atlantic storm track. The tropical SST control exerted over twentieth century regional climate underlies the importance of determining the future course of tropical SST for regional climate change and its uncertainty. Better understanding of the extratropical responses to different, plausible trajectories of the tropical oceans is key to such efforts.     

Simulation of Mt. Pinatubo Volcanic Aerosol with the Hamburg Climate Model ECHAM4

Summary  We study the three-dimensional transport of Mt. Pinatubo volcanic cloud with the climate model ECHAM4. In order to obtain model results comparable with observations a Newtonian relaxation technique was applied, which forces prognostic model variables towards the observations. A comparison of the simulated aerosol distribution with satellite data reveals good agreement for the first months after the eruption. The model, however, is unable to simulate the tropical aerosol maximum in 1992 and also overestimates the vertical downward and northward transport of aerosols. Substantial improvement was achieved with the introduction of reduced advective vertical transport through the 380 K isentropic layer. Heating rates and top of the atmosphere fluxes, which were calculated online for the first half year after the eruption, are in the observed range. A comparison of Pinatubo simulations between three different vertical ECHAM4 versions (ECHAM4 L19, ECHAM4 L39, MA/ECHAM4) indicates that a vertical resolution of ≈ 700 m in the tropopause region is sufficient to realistically reduce the vertical transport through the tropopause. Consideration of the upper branch of the Brewer Dobson circulation in the MA/ECHAM4 model improves the geographical distribution of the volcanic cloud. The application of a relaxation technique can further reduce major shortcomings of stratospheric simulations with the standard climate model. There remain, however some critical points in the global transport characteristics in all three models which are not fully understood. Received December 19, 1997 Revised July 22, 1998     

High-resolution simulations of the last glacial maximum climate over Europe: a solution to discrepancies with continental palaeoclimatic reconstructions?

The analyses of low-resolution models simulations of the last glacial maximum (LGM, 21 kyr BP) climate have revealed a large discrepancy between all the models and pollen-based palaeoclimatic reconstructions. In general, the models are too warm relative to the observations, especially in winter, where the difference is of the order of 10°C over western Europe. One of the causes of this discrepancy may be related to the low spatial resolution of these models. To assess the impact of using high-resolution models on simulated climate sensitivity, we use three approaches to obtain high-resolution climate simulations over Europe: first an atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) with a stretched grid over Europe, second a homogeneous T106 AGCM (high resolution everywhere on the globe) and last a limited area model (LAM) nested in a low-resolution AGCM. With all three methods, we have performed simulations of the European climate for present and LGM conditions, according to the experimental design recommended by the Palaeoclimate Modeling Intercomparison Project (PMIP). Model results have been compared with updated pollen-based palaeoclimatic indicators for temperature and precipitation that were initially developed in PMIP. For each model, a low-resolution global run was also performed. As expected, the low-resolution simulations underestimate the large cooling indicated by pollen data, especially in winter, despite revised slightly warmer reconstructions of the temperatures of the coldest month, and show results in the range of those obtained in PMIP with similar models. The two high-resolution AGCMs do not improve the temperature field and cannot account for the discrepancy between model results and data, especially in winter. However, they are able to reproduce trends in precipitation more closely than their low-resolution counterparts do, but the simulated climates are still not as arid as depicted by the data. Conversely, the LAM temperature results compare well with climate reconstructions in winter but the simulated hydrological cycle is not consistent with the data. Finally, these results are discussed in regard of other possible causes for discrepancies between models and palaeoclimatic reconstructions for the LGM European climate.     

Volcanoes and Climate: Sizing up the Impact of the Recent Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai Volcanic Eruption from a Historical Perspective

An undersea volcano at Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai (HTHH) near the South Pacific island nation of Tonga, erupted violently on 15 January 2022. Potential climate impact of the HTHH volcanic eruption is of great concern to the public; here, we intend to size up the impact of the HTHH eruption from a historical perspective. The influence of historical volcanic eruptions on the global climate are firstly reviewed, which are thought to have contributed to decreased surface temperature, increased stratospheric temperature, suppressed global water cycle, weakened monsoon circulation and El Ni?o-like sea surface temperature. Our understanding of the impacts of past volcanic eruptions on global-scale climate provides potential implication to evaluate the impact of the HTHH eruption. Based on historical simulations, we estimate that the current HTHH eruption with an intensity of 0.4 Tg SO₂ injection will decrease the global mean surface temperature by only 0.004°C in the first year after eruption, which is within the amplitude of internal variability at the interannual time scale and thus not strong enough to have significant impacts on the global climate.     

Regional modeling of decadal rainfall variability over the Sahel

A regional climate model is used to investigate the mechanism of interdecadal rainfall variability, specifically the drought of the 1970s and 1980s, in the Sahel region of Africa. The model is the National Center for Environmental Prediction’s (NCEPs) Regional Spectral Model (RSM97), with a horizontal resolution of approximately equivalent to a grid spacing of 50 km, nested within the ECHAM4.5 atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM), which in turn was forced by observed sea surface temperature (SST). Simulations for the July–September season of the individual years 1955 and 1986 produced wet conditions in 1955 and dry conditions in 1986 in the Sahel, as observed. Additional July–September simulations were run forced by SSTs averaged for each month over the periods 1950–1959 and the 1978–1987. These simulations yielded wet conditions in the 1950–1959 case and dry conditions in the 1978–1987 case, confirming the role of SST forcing in decadal variability in particular. To test the hypothesis that the SST influences Sahel rainfall via stabilization of the tropospheric sounding, simulations were performed in which the temperature field from the AGCM was artificially modified before it was used to force the regional model. We modified the original 1955 ECHAM4.5 temperature profiles by adding a horizontally uniform, vertically varying temperature increase, taken from the 1986–1955 tropical mean warming in either the AGCM or the NCEP/National Center for Atmospheric Research Reanalysis. When compared to the 1955 simulations without the added tropospheric warming, these simulations show a drying in the Sahel similar to that in the 1986–1955 difference and to the decadal difference between the 1980s and 1950s. This suggests that the tropospheric warming may have been, at least in part, the agent by which the SST increases led to the Sahel drought of the 1970s and 1980s.     

气溶胶气候效应的一维模式分析

本文首先采用一线辐射对流模式，分析了乡村型、城市型气溶胶和平流层气溶胶含量增加对全球地表气温的直接影响以及硫酸盐粒子含量增加对全球地表气温的间接影响。然后利用考虑了海洋热惯性作用的ＥＢＭ／ＢＤ模式，模拟了近百年来由于大气中硫酸盐粒子含量变化、火山爆发和大气温室气体浓度增加共同引起的全球地表平均气温变化。结果表明：气溶胶的气候效应在地气系统辐射收支和全球气温变化研究中起着非常重要的作用。     

Tropical paleoclimates at the Last Glacial Maximum: comparison of Paleoclimate Modeling Intercomparison Project (PMIP) simulations and paleodata

 Seventeen simulations of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) climate have been performed using atmospheric general circulation models (AGCM) in the framework of the Paleoclimate Modeling Intercomparison Project (PMIP). These simulations use the boundary conditions for CO₂, insolation and ice-sheets; surface temperatures (SSTs) are either (a) prescribed using CLIMAP data set (eight models) or (b) computed by coupling the AGCM with a slab ocean (nine models). The present-day (PD) tropical climate is correctly depicted by all the models, except the coarser resolution models, and the simulated geographical distribution of annual mean temperature is in good agreement with climatology. Tropical cooling at the LGM is less than at middle and high latitudes, but greatly exceeds the PD temperature variability. The LGM simulations with prescribed SSTs underestimate the observed temperature changes except over equatorial Africa where the models produce a temperature decrease consistent with the data. Our results confirm previous analyses showing that CLIMAP (1981) SSTs only produce a weak terrestrial cooling. When SSTs are computed, the models depict a cooling over the Pacific and Indian oceans in contrast with CLIMAP and most models produce cooler temperatures over land. Moreover four of the nine simulations, produce a cooling in good agreement with terrestrial data. Two of these model results over ocean are consistent with new SST reconstructions whereas two models simulate a homogeneous cooling. Finally, the LGM aridity inferred for most of the tropics from the data, is globally reproduced by the models with a strong underestimation for models using computed SSTs. Received: 9 September 1998 / Accepted: 18 March 1999     

火山喷发和太阳活动对我国温度影响的研究

利用特征向量分析、时序叠加分析和谱分析相结合的方法,给出了近５０年来我国地面气温场中较为清晰的火山喷发和太阳活动信号。强烈的火山喷发导致全国大部分地区降温,降温最明显的时段是喷发１年多以后,并能持续约半年。除这个主信号以外,青藏高原、东南沿海和东北地区都可能出现较为复杂的温度变化。温度变化与太阳活动之间的联系更多地反映在二者的振荡关系上。     

Impacts of global warming on hydrological cycles in the Asian monsoon region

The hydrologic changes and the impact of these changes constitute a fundamental global-warmingrelated concern. Faced with threats to human life and natural ecosystems, such as droughts, floods, and soil erosion, water resource planners must increasingly make future risk assessments. Though hydrological predictions associated with the global climate change are already being performed, mainly through the use of GCMs, coarse spatial resolutions and uncertain physical processes limit the representation of terrestrial water/energy interactions and the variability in such systems as the Asian monsoon. Despite numerous studies, the regional responses of hydrologic changes resulting from climate change remains inconclusive. In this paper, an attempt at dynamical downsealing of future hydrologic projection under global climate change in Asia is addressed. The authors conducted present and future Asian regional climate simulations which were nested in the results of Atmospheric General Circulation Model （AGCM） experiments. The regional climate model could capture the general simulated features of the AGCM. Also, some regional phenomena such as orographic precipitation, which did not appear in the outcome of the AGCM simulation, were successfully produced. Under global warming, the increase of water vapor associated with the warmed air temperature was projected. It was projected to bring more abundant water vapor to the southern portions of India and the Bay of Bengal, and to enhance precipitation especially over the mountainous regions, the western part of India and the southern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. As a result of the changes in the synoptic flow patterns and precipitation under global warming, the increases of annual mean precipitation and surface runoff were projected in many regions of Asia. However, both the positive and negative changes of seasonal surface runoff were projected in some regions which will increase the flood risk and cause a mismatch between water demand and water availability in the agricul     

青藏高原地区气溶胶直接辐射强迫的数值模拟研究

通过比较EMAC模式模拟结果和卫星观测结果证实了模式的可信性,进而利用模拟结果分析研究了2010～2012年青藏高原上空气溶胶光学厚度及其直接辐射强迫的时空分布规律.结果 表明:所有气溶胶组分中,沙尘、水溶性气溶胶和气溶胶中液态水是高原的主要消光物质,三者年平均消光占比分别为0.27、0.20和0.49.2011年夏季...     

亚洲地区气溶胶及其对中国区域气候影响的数值模拟

使用一个耦合入化学过程的区域气候模式 (RegCM3), 在NCAR/NCEP再分析资料驱动下, 通过多年时间尺度的连续积分, 进行了亚洲区域气溶胶硫酸盐、 黑碳和有机碳的时空分布及其直接气候效应的数值模拟。首先对模式的模拟能力进行了检验, 结果表明, 模式能够较好地模拟中国地区气温和降水的分布, 对该区域气溶胶的时空分布有一定的模拟能力。模式模拟得到的气溶胶浓度分布在冬季南北差异较大而夏季较小。气溶胶浓度与其形成的大气层顶和地面负短波辐射强迫有较好的对应关系。四川盆地是气溶胶浓度及其产生的辐射强迫的高值区。气溶胶对地面气温和降水都产生影响。其中所引起的冬季气温降低, 与气溶胶的分布和浓度有一定的对应关系, 但夏季引起的降温中心位于河套及黄河下游地区。气溶胶使得冬季和夏季中国东部大部分地区的降水减少。同时, 对气温和降水上述变化的原因进行了讨论。     

A review on aspects of climate simulation assessment

This paper reviews some aspects of evaluation of climate simulation, including the ITCZ, the surface air temperature (SAT), and the monsoon. A brief introduction of some recently proposed approaches in weather forecast verification is followed by a discussion on their possible application to evaluation of climate simulation. The authors suggest five strategies to extend the forecast verification methods to climate simulation evaluation regardless significant differences between the forecasts and climate simulations. It is argued that resolution, convection scheme, stratocumulus cloud cover, among other processes in the atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) and the ocean-atmosphere feedback are the potential causes for the double ITCZ problem in coupled models and AGCM simulations, based on the system- and component-level evaluations as well as the downscaling strategies in some recent research. Evaluations of simulated SAT and monsoons suggest that both coupled models and AGCMs show good performance in representing the SAT evolution and its variability over the past century in terms of correlation and wavelet analysis but poor at reproducing rainfall, and in addition, the AGCM alone is not suitable for monsoon regions due to the lack of air-sea interactions.     

Quantifying the contributions of anthropogenic and natural forcings to climate changes over arid-semiarid areas during 1946–2005

In this study, the contributions from changes in man-made greenhouse gases (GHG), anthropogenic aerosols (AA), and land use (LU), as well as natural solar and volcanic (NAT) forcing changes, to observed changes in surface air temperature (T) and precipitation (P) over global land, especially over arid-semiarid areas, during 1946–2005 are quantified using observations and climate model simulations from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5). Results show that the anthropogenic (ANT) forcings dominate the ubiquitous surface warming seen in observations and lead to slight increases in precipitation over most land areas, while the NAT forcing leads to small cooling over land. GHG increases are the primary factor responsible for the anthropogenic climate change, while the AA forcing offsets a large part of the GHG-induced warming and P changes. The LU forcing generally contributes little to the T and P changes from 1946 to 2005 over most land areas. Unlike the consistent temperature changes among most model simulations, precipitation changes display a large spread among the models and are incomparable with the observations in spatial distributions and magnitude, mainly due to its large internal variability that varies among individual model runs. Using an optimal fingerprinting method, we find that the observed warming over land during 1946–2005 can be largely attributed to the ANT forcings, and the combination of the ANT and NAT forcings can explain about 85~95% of the observed warming trend over global land as well as over most arid-semiarid regions such as Northern China. However, the anthropogenic influences on precipitation over the past 60 years are generally undetectable over most land areas, including most arid-semiarid regions. This indicates that internal variability is still larger than the forced change for land precipitation.     

The crucial role of ocean�Catmosphere coupling on the Indian monsoon anomalous response during dipole events

This paper examines an issue concerning the simulation of anomalously wet Indian summer monsoons like 1994 which co-occurred with strong positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) conditions in the tropical Indian Ocean. Contrary to observations it has been noticed that standalone atmospheric general circulation models (AGCM) forced with observed SST boundary condition, consistently depicted a decrease of the summer monsoon rainfall during 1994 over the Indian region. Given the ocean?Catmosphere coupling during IOD events, we have examined whether the failure of standalone AGCM simulations in capturing wet Indian monsoons like 1994 can be remedied by including a simple form of coupling that allows the monsoon circulation to dynamically interact with the IOD anomalies. With this view, we have performed a suite of simulations by coupling an AGCM to a slab-ocean model with spatially varying mixed-layer-depth (MLD) specified from observations for the 1994 IOD; as well as four other cases (1983, 1997, 2006, 2007). The specification of spatially varying MLD from observations allows us to constrain the model to observed IOD conditions. It is seen that the inclusion of coupling significantly improves the large-scale circulation response by strengthening the monsoon cross-equatorial flow; leading to precipitation enhancement over the subcontinent and rainfall decrease over south-eastern tropical Indian Ocean??in a manner broadly consistent with observations. A plausible physical mechanism is suggested to explain the monsoonal response in the coupled frame-work. These results warrant the need for improved monsoon simulations with fully coupled models to be able to better capture the observed monsoon interannual variability.     

Impact of land surface processes on the South American warm season climate

The present study demonstrates that (1) the simulation of the South American warm season (December?CFebruary) climate by an atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) is sensitive to the representation of land surface processes, (2) the sensitivity is not confined to the ??hot spot?? in Amazonia, and (3) upgrading the representation of those processes can produce a significant improvement in AGCM performance. The reasons for sensitivity and higher success are investigated based on comparisons between observational datasets and simulations by the AGCM coupled to either a simple land scheme that specifies soil moisture availability or to the Simplified Simple Biosphere Model (SSiB) that allows for consideration of soil and vegetation biophysical process. The context for the study is the UCLA AGCM. The most notable simulation improvements are along the lee of the Andes in the lower troposphere, where poleward flow transports abundant moisture from the Amazon basin to high latitudes, and in the monsoon region where the intensity and pattern of precipitation and upper level ice water content are more realistic. It is argued that a better depiction of the Chaco Low, which is controlled by local effects of land surface processes, decisively contributes to the superior model performance with low-level flows in central South America. The better representation of the atmospheric column static stability and large-scale moisture convergence in tropical South America contribute to more realistic precipitation over the monsoon region. The overall simulation improvement is, therefore, due to a combination of different regional processes. This finding is supported by idealized AGCM experiments.     

火山活动对气候影响的数值模拟研究

文章系统地总结了火山活动对气候影响的数值模拟研究，主要结论如下:近百年至千年的气候变化和火山活动关系密切，强火山喷发可造成平流层4℃以上的增温和地表年、月平均温度约0.4℃、1℃的下降。地表温度下降的时空分布受许多因素的影响，如火山喷发特征（包括喷发位置、季节、强度等）；海陆分布；火山气溶胶的光学特性；及其由直接辐射强迫引起的经向潜热输送的变化等等。同时还回顾了1991年皮纳图博喷发的有关研究及其对全球气候的可能影响的数值模拟工作。     

A Study on Sulfate Optical Properties and Direct Radiative Forcing Using LASG-IAP General Circulation Model

The direct radiative forcing(DRF) of sulfate aerosols depends highly on the atmospheric sulfate loading and the meteorology,both of which undergo strong regional and seasonal variations.Because the optical properties of sulfate aerosols are also sensitive to atmospheric relative humidity,in this study we first examine the scheme for optical properties that considers hydroscopic growth.Next,we investigate the seasonal and regional distributions of sulfate DRF using the sulfate loading simulated from NCAR CAM-Chem together with the meteorology modeled from a spectral atmospheric general circulation model(AGCM) developed by LASG-IAP.The global annual-mean sulfate loading of 3.44 mg m 2 is calculated to yield the DRF of 1.03 and 0.57 W m 2 for clear-sky and all-sky conditions,respectively.However,much larger values occur on regional bases.For example,the maximum all-sky sulfate DRF over Europe,East Asia,and North America can be up to 4.0 W m 2.The strongest all-sky sulfate DRF occurs in the Northern Hemispheric July,with a hemispheric average of 1.26 W m 2.The study results also indicate that the regional DRF are strongly affected by cloud and relative humidity,which vary considerably among the regions during different seasons.This certainly raises the issue that the biases in model-simulated regional meteorology can introduce biases into the sulfate DRF.Hence,the model processes associated with atmospheric humidity and cloud physics should be modified in great depth to improve the simulations of the LASG-IAP AGCM and to reduce the uncertainty of sulfate direct effects on global and regional climate in these simulations.