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Assessing the climate impact of an improved volcanic sulfate aerosol representation in E3SM

Journal Article · · Geoscientific Model Development (Online)
 [1];  [2];  [2];  [3];  [4]
  1. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Desert Research Institute (DRI), Reno, NV (United States)
  2. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  3. Texas A & M Univ., College Station, TX (United States)
  4. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations
Accurately simulating historical surface temperature variations is essential for evaluating climate models, yet many struggle to reproduce the mid-20th-century temperature trends associated with significant volcanic eruptions. This study examines the impact of volcanic sulfate aerosol representation on these biases using the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM). The standard CMIP6 protocol prescribes volcanic forcing through radiative perturbations, omitting volcanic aerosol–cloud interactions (VACIs). Here, we implement an emission-based approach with an updated volcanic eruption inventory that directly incorporates volcanic sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions, enabling a more process-based representation of volcanic forcing. This approach leads to improved surface temperature variability and a modest reduction in cold biases between 1940 and 1980 compared to the CMIP6 setup. Additionally, we assess cloud property responses to a more realistic volcanic sulfate aerosol representation, which weakens cloud-induced cooling during periods of lower volcanic activity. However, despite these refinements, a significant temperature cold bias remains, indicating that further improvements in atmospheric chemistry, aerosol microphysics, cloud processes, and model parameterizations are needed to fully resolve this issue in E3SM.
Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC); National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program; USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231; AC05-76RL01830; AC52-07NA27344
OSTI ID:
2572510
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 2572751
Report Number(s):
LLNL--JRNL-864575; PNNL-SA--213398
Journal Information:
Geoscientific Model Development (Online), Journal Name: Geoscientific Model Development (Online) Journal Issue: 13 Vol. 18; ISSN 1991-9603
Publisher:
Copernicus Publications, EGUCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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