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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 6, NUMBER 6, JUNE 1993

PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS...
CLIMATIC IMPACT OF STRATOSPHERIC AEROSOLS

Item #d93jun50

"Radiative Climate Forcing by the Mount Pinatubo Eruption," P. Minnis (NASA-Langley, Hampton VA 23681), E.F. Harrison et al., Science, 259(5100), 1411-1415, Mar. 5, 1993.

Radiative flux anomalies derived from the spaceborne Earth Radiation Budget Experiment provide the first unambiguous, direct measurements of large-scale volcanic forcing. Aerosols from the June 1991 Pinatubo eruption caused a strong cooling effect immediately, through both direct and indirect increases in albedo.

Item #d93jun51

"Comparison of Stratospheric Warming Following Agung, El Chichón and Pinatubo Volcanic Eruptions," J.K. Angell (ARL, NOAA, 1325 E.-W. Hwy., Silver Spring MD 20910), Geophys. Res. Lett., 20(8), 715-718, Apr. 23, 1993.

Data from a 63-station network shows that the warming following Agung and El Chichón was greatest in the equatorial zone and least at the poles, with greater warming south of the equator. Globally, the warming in the lower stratosphere following Pinatubo was greater than for the other two eruptions.

Item #d93jun52

"Radiative Properties of Mount Pinatubo Volcanic Aerosols over the Tropical Atlantic," R. Saunders (UKMO, Farnborough, Hants GU14 6TD, UK), Geophys. Res. Lett., 20(2), 137-140, Jan. 22, 1993.

Model calculations based on aircraft measurements made five months after the eruption predict a decrease in tropospheric heating rate of less than 0.2·C per day.

Item #d93jun53

"Winter Warming from Large Volcanic Eruptions," A. Robock (Dept. Meteor., Univ. Maryland, College Pk. MD 20742), J. Mao, ibid., 19(24), 2405-2408, Dec. 24, 1992.

Examination of temperatures following the 12 largest eruptions in the period 1883-1992 shows a pattern of warming over Eurasia and North America and cooling over the Middle East, independent of the hemisphere of the eruptions.

Item #d93jun54

"Solar Radiative Forcing at Selected Locations and Evidence for Global Lower Tropospheric Cooling Following the Eruptions of El Chichón and Pinatubo," E.G. Dutton (NOAA CMDL, Code R/E/CG1, 325 Broadway, Boulder CO 80303), J.R. Christy, ibid., 19(23), 2313-2316, Dec. 2, 1992.

Satellite microwave sounding data show global lower tropospheric temperatures decreased 0.5·C three months after the eruption of Pinatubo.

Item #d93jun55

"Global Relationships among the Earth's Radiation Budget, Cloudiness, Volcanic Aerosols, and Surface Temperature," P.E. Ardanuy (Res. & Data Sys. Corp., S. 460, 7855 Walker Dr., Greenbelt MD 20770), H.L. Kyle, D. Hoyt, J. Clim., 5(10), 1120-1139, Oct. 1992.

Assesses interannual variability of and correlations among: Nimbus-7 THIR/TOMS cloud amount; ERB WFOV longwave, shortwave, and net radiation; SAM II aerosol optical depths; and surface temperature analyses.

Item #d93jun56

Two items from Geophys. Res. Lett., 19(15), Aug. 3, 1992:

"Possible Regional Climate Consequences of the Pinatubo Eruption: An Empirical Approach," P.Ya. Groisman (NCDC-NOAA, Fed. Bldg., Asheville NC 28801), 1603-1606. The unusually warm winter of 1991-92 in Eastern Europe coincides with the pattern exhibited following the greatest eruptions of the last two centuries. The pattern favors cool summers in Eastern Europe and the northeastern U.S. in the next two or three years.

"Climate Forcing by Stratospheric Aerosols," A. Lacis (NASA Goddard Inst. Space Studies, 2880 Broadway, New York NY 10025), J. Hansen, M. Sato, 1607-1610. Illustrates how the forcing depends on aerosol properties and can be defined accurately from measurements of aerosol extinction over a broad wavelength range.

Item #d93jun57

"Evidence for Liquid-Phase Cirrus Cloud Formation from Volcanic Aerosols: Climatic Implications," K. Sassen (Dept. Meteor., Univ. Utah, Salt Lake City UT 84112), Science, 257(5069), 516-519, July 24, 1992.

Lidar measurements indicate the presence of rare supercooled water droplets in cirrus clouds, apparently resulting from freezing-point depression of cloud condensation nuclei of volcanic origin. An unrecognized volcano-cirrus cloud climate feedback mechanism is implied.

Item #d93jun58

"Stratospheric Aerosols vs. Global Greenhouse Warming of the Lower Stratosphere," I.L. Karol (Main Geophys. Observ., Moscow, Russia), V.A. Frolkis, Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR Fizika Atmosfery i Okeana, 28(5), 467-474, May 1992. In Russian.

Calculations with a radiative-convective model show that compensation of the greenhouse warming exhibited by surface layer air during the last decades would require the annual input of several megatons of sulfate aerosols and hundreds of kilotons of soot.

Item #d93jun59

"Expected Global Anthropogenic Variations of Climate Caused by Joint Influence of Carbonic Acid and Carbonyl Sulfide Combustion Effects," A.S. Kabanov (Exper. Meteor. Res. Inst., Obninsk, USSR), ibid., 28(3), 227-233, Mar. 1992. In Russian.