Berlin 2014 – scientific programme

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SYRE: Symposium Rare Events: optimal solutions and challenges - from charge transfer reactions to supervolcanoes

SYRE 1: Symposium Rare Events: optimal solutions and challenges – from charge transfer reactions to supervolcanoes

SYRE 1.4: Invited Talk

Wednesday, March 19, 2014, 18:00–18:30, Audimax

The climate impact of very large volcanic eruptions: An Earth system model approach — •Claudia Timmreck — Max-Planck-Institut für Meteorologie, Hamburg, Germany

Large volcanic eruptions are an important driving factor of natural climate variability. In particular very large volcanic eruptions (super eruptions) produce extremely strong radiative forcing, which can affect the Earth system for longer times than the pure atmospheric residence time of the volcanic aerosol. Applying such radiative forcing provides a wide range of possibilities to investigate the complex feedback mechanisms of the Earth system, e.g., which processes will be activated, how stable will the system be, are positive or negative feedback loops dominant. Super eruption simulations with Earth system models (ESMs) are therefore an ideal test bed for the quality and performance of such models. Here we present and discuss MPI-ESM simulations of very large volcanic eruptions in different seasons and hence different states of the climate system carried out in the frame of the MPI-M Super volcano project. New insights have been gained in this project about volcanic impacts on atmospheric composition and dynamics, but most notably also about their impact on ocean dynamics, the hydrological and the carbon cycle and on marine and terrestrial biogeochemistry. Major achievements are the improved understanding of the volcanic imprint on decadal to multi-decadal time scales and the importance of the microphysical treatment of the volcanic aerosol size distribution.