Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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.
Volcanic aerosols from huge volcanoes (VEI>=5) directly reduce global mean sea surface temperature (SST) by approximately 0.2-0.3 °C, [1] [3] milder than global total surface temperature drop, which is ~0.3 to 0.5 °C, [4] [5] [6] according to both global temperature records and model simulations. It usually takes several years to be back to ...
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 ...
Modern scholarship has determined that in early AD 536 (or possibly late 535), an eruption ejected massive amounts of sulfate aerosols into the atmosphere, which reduced the solar radiation reaching the Earth's surface and cooled the atmosphere for several years. In March 536, Constantinople began experiencing darkened skies and lower temperatures.
The 1815 eruption released SO 2 into the stratosphere, causing a global climate anomaly. Different methods have estimated the ejected sulfur mass during the eruption: the petrological method; an optical depth measurement based on anatomical observations; and the polar ice core sulfate concentration method, using cores from Greenland and Antarctica.
The effects of volcanic eruptions containing sulfur dioxide aerosols on the ozone layer are complex, however. In the absence of anthropogenic or biogenic halogenated compounds in the lower stratosphere, depletion of dinitrogen pentoxide in the middle stratosphere associated with its reactivity to the aerosols can promote ozone formation. [ 69 ]
Before the site of the eruption was known, an examination of ice cores around the world had detected a large spike in sulfate deposition from around 1257 providing strong evidence of a large volcanic eruption occurring at that time. In 2013, scientists linked the historical records about Mount Samalas to these spikes.
[124] [118] [125] Yet, around the same time, research had shown that sulfate aerosols were affecting both the visible light received by the Earth and its surface temperature, [126] and as the so-called global dimming) began to reverse in the 1990s in line with the reduced anthropogenic sulfate pollution, [127] [128] [129] climate change ...