A latitudinally dependent volcanic dust veil index, and its effect on climate simulations

A latitudinally dependent annual average volcanic dust veil index is developed based on indices of Lamb and Mitchell. This index is then used to force a climate model to determine if an improved volcanic index could improve the correlations previously found when forcing the model with hemispherically averaged dust. It does not. This suggests that natural variability may also be an important cause of climate change during the past 400 years.