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The effect of major volcanic eruptions on sulfate aerosol concentrations and chemical reactions in the atmosphere. Major volcanic eruptions have an overwhelming effect on sulfate aerosol concentrations in the years when they occur: eruptions ranking 4 or greater on the Volcanic Explosivity Index inject SO 2 and water vapor directly into the stratosphere, where they react to create sulfate ...
Aerosols have a cooling effect that is small compared to the radiative forcing (warming effect) of greenhouse gases. [ 99 ] Atmospheric aerosols affect the climate of the Earth by changing the amount of incoming solar radiation and outgoing terrestrial longwave radiation retained in the Earth's system.
This cooling effect on the ocean surface usually lasts for several years as the lifetime of sulfate aerosols is about 2–3 years. [1] However, in the subsurface ocean the cooling signal may persist for a longer time and may have impacts on some decadal variabilities, such as the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC). [1] [2]
The conversion of sulfur dioxide to sulfuric acid, which condenses rapidly in the stratosphere to form fine sulfate aerosols. A volcanic winter is a reduction in global temperatures caused by droplets of sulfuric acid obscuring the Sun and raising Earth's albedo (increasing the reflection of solar radiation) after a large, sulfur-rich, particularly explosive volcanic eruption.
The cooling period is reproduced by current (1999 on) global climate models that include the physical effects of sulfate aerosols, and there is now general agreement that aerosol effects were the dominant cause of the mid-20th century cooling. At the time there were two physical mechanisms that were most frequently advanced to cause cooling ...
Mist and fog are aerosols. An aerosol is a suspension of fine solid particles or liquid droplets in air or another gas. [1] Aerosols can be generated from natural or human causes. The term aerosol commonly refers to the mixture of particulates in air, and not to the particulate matter alone. [2] Examples of natural aerosols are fog, mist or dust.
Global dimming is a decline in the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth's surface. [2] [3] It is caused by atmospheric particulate matter, predominantly sulfate aerosols, which are components of air pollution. [4]
Radiative forcing is defined in the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report as follows: "The change in the net, downward minus upward, radiative flux (expressed in W/m 2) due to a change in an external driver of climate change, such as a change in the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO 2), the concentration of volcanic aerosols or the output of the Sun." [3]: 2245