Quantifying Stratospheric Temperature Signals and Climate Imprints From Post‐2000 Volcanic Eruptions

Stocker, Matthias; Ladstädter, Florian; Wilhelmsen, Hallgeir; Steiner, Andrea

doi:10.1029/2019gl084396

Cited by 21 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…2 bc and 4 a right panel), it is most likely connected to the elevated part of the aerosol plume, which was initially transported across the Atlantic Ocean. Such a warming behavior that is stronger closer to the equator has already been found for volcanic eruptions 25 , 26 . However, the absorptive characteristics of volcanic aerosols differ greatly from biomass burning aerosols, which contain substantial amounts of black carbon 15 .…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 76%

Observing the climate impact of large wildfires on stratospheric temperature

Stocker

Ladstädter

Steiner

2021

Sci Rep

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Wildfires are expected to become more frequent and intense in the future. They not only pose a serious threat to humans and ecosystems, but also affect Earth’s atmosphere. Wildfire plumes can reach into the stratosphere, but little is known about their climate impact. Here, we reveal observational evidence that major wildfires can have a severe impact on the atmospheric temperature structure and short-term climate in the stratosphere. Using advanced satellite observation, we find substantial warming of up to 10 K of the lower stratosphere within the wildfire plumes during their early development. The short-term climate signal in the lower stratosphere lasts several months and amounts to 1 K for the Northern American wildfires in 2017, and up to striking 3.5 K for the Australian wildfires in 2020. This is stronger than any signal from recent volcanic eruptions. Such extreme events affect atmospheric composition and climate trends, underpinning their importance for future climate.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 76%

Observing the climate impact of large wildfires on stratospheric temperature

Stocker

Ladstädter

Steiner

2021

Sci Rep

Self Cite

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“…10). The lifetime of the ANYSO plume is at least 15 months through the end of March 2021, which is comparable with Raikoke and the 2015 Calbuco eruptions 62 . For comparison, the 2017 PNE produced a maximum sAOD of 0.008 and dissipated after ten months 59 .…”

Section: Downwind Plume Evolution and Persistencesupporting

confidence: 68%

Australia’s Black Summer pyrocumulonimbus super outbreak reveals potential for increasingly extreme stratospheric smoke events

Peterson

Fromm

McRae³

et al. 2021

npj Clim Atmos Sci

114

140

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The Black Summer fire season of 2019–2020 in southeastern Australia contributed to an intense ‘super outbreak’ of fire-induced and smoke-infused thunderstorms, known as pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb). More than half of the 38 observed pyroCbs injected smoke particles directly into the stratosphere, producing two of the three largest smoke plumes observed at such altitudes to date. Over the course of 3 months, these plumes encircled a large swath of the Southern Hemisphere while continuing to rise, in a manner consistent with existing nuclear winter theory. We connect cause and effect of this event by quantifying the fire characteristics, fuel consumption, and meteorology contributing to the pyroCb spatiotemporal evolution. Emphasis is placed on the unusually long duration of sustained pyroCb activity and anomalous persistence during nighttime hours. The ensuing stratospheric smoke plumes are compared with plumes injected by significant volcanic eruptions over the last decade. As the second record-setting stratospheric pyroCb event in the last 4 years, the Australian super outbreak offers new clues on the potential scale and intensity of this increasingly extreme fire-weather phenomenon in a warming climate.

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“…Explosive volcanic eruptions such as El Chichón in 1982, Mount Pinatubo in 1991 (Robock 2000) and also minor volcanic eruptions after 2000 affect short-term temperature trends in the troposphere and stratosphere (Solomon et al 2011;Stocker et al 2019). As a proxy for the effects of volcanic eruptions we compute the stratospheric aerosol optical depth over 15-25 km from the monthly mean Global Space-Based Stratospheric Aerosol Climatology (GloSSAC), version 1.0, averaging over the tropics and subtropics (Thomason 2017;Thomason et al 2018).…”

Section: Trend Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Observed Temperature Changes in the Troposphere and Stratosphere from 1979 to 2018

et al. 2020

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Temperature observations of the upper-air atmosphere are now available for more than 40 years from both ground- and satellite-based observing systems. Recent years have seen substantial improvements in reducing long-standing discrepancies among data sets through major reprocessing efforts. The advent of radio occultation (RO) observations in 2001 has led to further improvements in vertically-resolved temperature measurements, enabling a detailed analysis of upper troposphere/lower stratosphere trends. This paper presents the current state of atmospheric temperature trends from the latest available observational records. We analyze observations from merged operational satellite measurements, radiosondes, lidars, and RO, spanning a vertical range from the lower troposphere to the upper stratosphere. The focus is on assessing climate trends and on identifying the degree of consistency among the observational systems. The results show a robust cooling of the stratosphere of about 1–3 K, and a robust warming of the troposphere of about 0.6–0.8 K over the last four decades (1979–2018). Consistent results are found between the satellite-based layer average temperatures and vertically-resolved radiosonde records. The overall latitude-altitude trend patterns are consistent between RO and radiosonde records. Significant warming of the troposphere is evident in the RO measurements available after 2001, with trends of 0.25–0.35 K per decade. Amplified warming in the tropical upper-troposphere compared to surface trends for 2002–2018 is found based on RO and radiosonde records, in approximate agreement with moist adiabatic lapse rate theory. The consistency of trend results from the latest upper-air data sets will help to improve understanding of climate changes and their drivers.

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Quantifying Stratospheric Temperature Signals and Climate Imprints From Post‐2000 Volcanic Eruptions

Cited by 21 publications

References 35 publications

Observing the climate impact of large wildfires on stratospheric temperature

Observing the climate impact of large wildfires on stratospheric temperature

Australia’s Black Summer pyrocumulonimbus super outbreak reveals potential for increasingly extreme stratospheric smoke events

Observed Temperature Changes in the Troposphere and Stratosphere from 1979 to 2018

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