Multi-model comparison of the volcanic sulfate deposition from the 1815 eruption of Mt. Tambora ...

• Main Authors: Marshall, Lauren, Schmidt, Anja, Toohey, Matthew, Carslaw, Ken S., Mann, Graham W., Sigl, Michael, Khodri, Myriam, Timmreck, Claudia, Zanchettin, Davide, Ball, William, Bekki, Slimane, Brooke, James S.A., Dhomse, Sandip, Johnson, Colin, Lamarque, Jean Francois, LeGrande, Allegra, Mills, Michael J., Niemeier, Ulrike, Poulain, Virginie, Robock, Alan, Rozanov, Eugene, Stenke, Andrea, Sukhodolov, Timofei, Tilmes, Simone, Tsigaridis, Kostas, Tummon, Fiona
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: ETH Zurich 2018
• Subjects: ice core
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000221531; http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/253165

The eruption of Mt. Tambora in 1815 was the largest volcanic eruption of the past 500 years. The eruption had significant climatic impacts, leading to the 1816 “year without a summer”, and remains a valuable event from which to understand the climatic effects of large stratospheric volcanic sulfur dioxide injections. The eruption also resulted in one of the strongest and most easily identifiable volcanic sulfate signals in polar ice cores, which are widely used to reconstruct the timing and atmospheric sulfate loading of past eruptions. As part of the Model Intercomparison Project on the climatic response to Volcanic forcing (VolMIP), five state-of-the-art global aerosol models simulated this eruption. We analyse both simulated background (no Tambora) and volcanic (with Tambora) sulfate deposition to polar regions and compare to ice core records. The models simulate overall similar patterns of background sulfate deposition, although there are differences in regional details and magnitude. However, the ... : Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 18 (3) ...