Volcanic eruptions and climate
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23337265 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alan Robock (0000-0002-6319-5656, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2000 |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 191-219 |
| Publication date | 2000-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Reviews of Geophysics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 8755-1209 • E-ISSN: 1944-9208 |
| Publisher | American Geophysical Union (AGU) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1029/1998rg000054 |
| OpenAlex | W1982846260 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 84 |
| References cited | 142 |
Volcanic eruptions are an important natural cause of climate change on many timescales. A new capability to predict the climatic response to a large tropical eruption for the succeeding 2 years will prove valuable to society. In addition, to detect and attribute anthropogenic influences on climate, including effects of greenhouse gases, aerosols, and ozone‐depleting chemicals, it is crucial to quantify the natural fluctuations so as to separate them from anthropogenic fluctuations in the climate record. Studying the responses of climate to volcanic eruptions also helps us to better understand important radiative and dynamical processes that respond in the climate system to both natural and anthropogenic forcings. Furthermore, modeling the effects of volcanic eruptions helps us to improve climate models that are needed to study anthropogenic effects. Large volcanic eruptions inject sulfur gases into the stratosphere, which convert to sulfate aerosols with an e ‐folding residence time of about 1 year. Large ash particles fall out much quicker. The radiative and chemical effects of this aerosol cloud produce responses in the climate system. By scattering some solar radiation back to space, the aerosols cool the surface, but by absorbing both solar and terrestrial radiation, the aerosol layer heats the stratosphere. For a tropical eruption this heating is larger in the tropics than in the high latitudes, producing an enhanced pole‐to‐equator temperature gradient, especially in winter. In the Northern Hemisphere winter this enhanced gradient produces a stronger polar vortex, and this stronger jet stream produces a characteristic stationary wave pattern of tropospheric circulation, resulting in winter warming of Northern Hemisphere continents. This indirect advective effect on temperature is stronger than the radiative cooling effect that dominates at lower latitudes and in the summer. The volcanic aerosols also serve as surfaces for heterogeneous chemical reactions that destroy stratospheric ozone, which lowers ultraviolet absorption and reduces the radiative heating in the lower stratosphere, but the net effect is still heating. Because this chemical effect depends on the presence of anthropogenic chlorine, it has only become important in recent decades. For a few days after an eruption the amplitude of the diurnal cycle of surface air temperature is reduced under the cloud. On a much longer timescale, volcanic effects played a large role in interdecadal climate change of the Little Ice Age. There is no perfect index of past volcanism, but more ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica will improve the record. There is no evidence that volcanic eruptions produce El Niño events, but the climatic effects of El Niño and volcanic eruptions must be separated to understand the climatic response to each.
Climatology · Earth science · Lava · Phreatomagmatic eruption · Seismology · Volcanic hazards · Volcano · Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics · Atmospheric Ozone and Climate · Climate variability and models · Geology
The North Atlantic Fish Revolution (ca. AD 1500)
Exploring a Mallorca cave flooding during the Little Ice Age using nondestructive techniques on a stalagmite
Environmental impact assessment of vernacular thatch building tradition in Mexico
Full Issue PDF
Examining Our Past Relationship with Climate to Understand Climate’s Current Importance
The Parting of the Sea
The Cambridge History of Ireland
Security in Crisis
Global Volcanic Hazards and Risk
The history of soil erosion and fluvial deposits in small catchments of central Europe
El Niño/Southern Oscillation and tropical Pacific climate during the last millennium
Timing and climate forcing of volcanic eruptions for the past 2,500 years
The ‘little ice age’
Assessing “Dangerous Climate Change”
Abrupt onset of the Little Ice Age triggered by volcanism and sustained by sea‐ice/ocean feedbacks
Mid- to Late Holocene climate change
Albedo Enhancement by Stratospheric Sulfur Injections
Climate over past millennia
Men, Women, Children and the Family, 1550–1730
Marilynn S. Olson, Donald W. Olson, and Russell L. Doescher on the Blood-Red Sky of Munch's the Scream
Ottoman Iceland
Solar cycle modulation of the Pacific–North American teleconnection influence on North American winter climate
Sensitivity of regional monsoons to idealised equatorial volcanic eruption of different sulfur emission strengths
Impact of volcanic eruptions on extratropical atmospheric circulations
The solar influence on the probability of relatively cold UK winters in the future
Sensitivity of the global hydrological cycle to the altitude of stratospheric sulphate aerosol layer
Medieval Irish chronicles reveal persistent volcanic forcing of severe winter cold events, 431–1649 CE
Rapid and extensive warming following cessation of solar radiation management
A millennium-long ‘Blue Ring’ chronology from the Spanish Pyrenees reveals severe ephemeral summer cooling after volcanic eruptions
Quantifying the impact of early 21st century volcanic eruptions on global-mean surface temperature
Benchmarking carbon fluxes of the Isimip2a biome models
Disentangling the causes of the 1816 European year without a summer
A new archive of large volcanic events over the past millennium derived from reconstructed summer temperatures
Forecasting the climate response to volcanic eruptions
Identifying the regional emergence of climate patterns in the Arise-SAI-1.5 simulations
Tropical volcanic eruptions enhance Pacific-driven global tropical cyclone genesis
Stratospheric AOD after the 2011 eruption of Nabro volcano measured by lidars over the Northern Hemisphere
What is the current state of scientific knowledge with regard to seasonal and decadal forecasting
What goes up must come down
The global precipitation response to volcanic eruptions in the CMIP5 models
Volcanic disaster risk reduction in indigenous communities on Tanna Island, Vanuatu
The Fimbulwinter myth in the context of Nordic tree-ring climate proxy data
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Use of models in detection and attribution of climate change
Modeling the climatic effects of large explosive volcanic eruptions
Past and recent changes in the North Atlantic oscillation
The physical concept of climate forcing
Volcanoes and climate
Nuclear winter
Approaches to the environmental history of Late Antiquity, part II
Some Perspectives on Societal Impacts of Past Climatic Changes
Accessing Magma
Direct transformation of tree-ring measurements into palaeoclimate reconstructions in three-dimensional space
Arctic climate over the past millennium
The Indian Ocean Dipole response to external forcing in the coupled model intercomparison project phase 5 simulations of the last millennium
Influence of climate change and human activities on the organic and inorganic composition of peat during the ‘Little Ice Age’ (El Payo mire, W Spain)
The impact of volcanism on Scandinavian climate and human societies during the Holocene
The ‘Little Ice Age’ in the Southern Hemisphere in the context of the last 3000 years
Discovery and environmental implications of Santorini tephras (Cape Riva and Minoan) in sediments of Lake Yayla (West Anatolia)
The Medieval Quiet Period
Holocene climate variability and Indian Summer Monsoon
What a Winter it Was”
Abandonment of Minoan palaces on Crete in relation to the earthquake induced changes in groundwater supply
On the vulnerability of the ancient Maya society to natural threats
Tree diversity and social–ecological resilience of agroforestry after volcanic ash deposition in Indonesia
A review of past changes in extratropical cyclones in the northern hemisphere and what can be learned for the future
Tambora 1815 as a test case for high impact volcanic eruptions
Loch drainage and improvement in Scotland
Is Aerosol Geoengineering Ethically Preferable to Other Climate Change Strategies
Signatures of global climatic events and forcing factors for the last two millennia from the active mudflats of Rohisa, southern Saurashtra, Gujarat, western India
Responses of Enso and NAO to the external radiative forcing during the last millennium
Reconciling multiple ice-core volcanic histories
The drought and locust plague of 942–944 AD in the Yellow River Basin, China
Inferring precipitation-anomaly gradients from tree rings
Ultra-distal tephra deposits from super-eruptions
Aspects of Armageddon
A climate for the Khans
Linking long-term temperature variability to population density in Andorra (Central Pyrenees)
Depictions of Sunsets as Information Sources
Timescales and cultural process at 40,000 BP in the light of the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption, Western Eurasia
Les effets géographiques des éruptions volcaniques
Differences in the Perceived Influence of Natural Disasters and Travel Risk on International Travel
Time, Money, and the Weather
When the well runs dry
| Unique citing works | 84 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3,5 |
| Citation span | 2002 - 2026 (25) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 79 |