In:
Climate of the Past, Copernicus GmbH, Vol. 14, No. 6 ( 2018-06-18), p. 811-824
Abstract:
Abstract. Explosive volcanism is an important natural climate forcing, impacting global
surface temperatures and regional precipitation. Although previous studies
have investigated aspects of the impact of tropical volcanism on various
ocean–atmosphere systems and regional climate regimes, volcanic eruptions
remain a poorly understood climate forcing and climatic responses are not
well constrained. In this study, volcanic eruptions are explored in
particular reference to Australian precipitation, and both the Indian Ocean
Dipole (IOD) and El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Using nine realisations
of the last millennium (LM) (850–1850 CE) with different time-evolving forcing
combinations, from the NASA GISS ModelE2-R, the impact of the six largest
tropical volcanic eruptions of this period are investigated. Overall, we find
that volcanic aerosol forcing increased the likelihood of El Niño and
positive IOD conditions for up to four years following an eruption, and
resulted in positive precipitation anomalies over north-west (NW) and
south-east (SE) Australia. Larger atmospheric sulfate loading during larger
volcanic eruptions coincided with more persistent positive IOD and El Niño
conditions, enhanced positive precipitation anomalies over NW Australia, and
dampened precipitation anomalies over SE Australia.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
1814-9332
DOI:
10.5194/cp-14-811-2018
Language:
English
Publisher:
Copernicus GmbH
Publication Date:
2018
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2217985-9
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