Radiative Climate Forcing by the Mount Pinatubo Eruption

Abstract

Radiative flux anomalies derived from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) spaceborne Earth Radiation Budget Experiment were used to determine the volcanic radiative forcing that followed the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in June 1991. They are the first unambiguous, direct measurements of large-scale volcanic forcing. The volcanic aerosols caused a strong cooling effect immediately; the amount of cooling increased through September 1991 as shortwave forcing increased relative to the longwave forcing. The primary effects of the aerosols were a direct increase in albedo over mostly clear areas and both direct and indirect increases in the albedo of cloudy areas.

Volcanic Aerosol Layer Observed by Shipboard Lidar over the Tropical Western Pacific

“…1991 produced the largest stratospheric volcanic aerosols in the last century. About 20 megatons of SO2 were injected into the stratosphere (Bluth et al 1992), that caused a global cooling effect (Minnis et al 1993). The eruptions of Manam volcano was about 85 times smaller than the Mt.…”

Geoengineering climate by stratospheric sulfur injections: Earth system vulnerability to technological failure

“…In the case of full compensation for radiative forcing of anthropogenic CO 2 , the sulfur load is 13 MtS at maximum. Assuming a lifetime of stratospheric aerosols of about 2 years (Hansen et al 1992;Minnis et al 1993), required stratospheric emissions are about 7 MtS/year. This amount seems to be quite affordable in comparison with global sulfur production of 66 MtS/year in 2006 albeit most of current sulfur production is a result of processing of fossil fuels (USGS 2007).…”

The Role of Volcanic Activity in Climate and Global Change

“…Many of these studies have focused on simulating the aftermath of the Mt. Pinatubo eruption in the Philippines at 15.1 N, 120.4 E in June 1991 that was both the largest eruption of the twentieth century and the eruption for which the stratospheric aerosol has been best observed [61][62][63][64][65][66][67]. During this eruption about 17 Tg (17 Â 10 12 g) of SO 2 were injected into the lower stratosphere and subsequently converted into sulphate aerosols.…”