Assessing the climate impact of an improved volcanic sulfate aerosol representation in E3SM
<p>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 repre...
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Copernicus Publications
2025-07-01
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| Series: | Geoscientific Model Development |
| Online Access: | https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/18/4137/2025/gmd-18-4137-2025.pdf |
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| author | Z. Ke Z. Ke Q. Tang J.-C. Golaz X. Liu H. Wang |
| author_facet | Z. Ke Z. Ke Q. Tang J.-C. Golaz X. Liu H. Wang |
| author_sort | Z. Ke |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <p>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 (SO<span class="inline-formula"><sub>2</sub></span>) 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.</p> |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-9eff5e91dd7040d4bca1e882e89683e7 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 1991-959X 1991-9603 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-07-01 |
| publisher | Copernicus Publications |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Geoscientific Model Development |
| spelling | doaj-art-9eff5e91dd7040d4bca1e882e89683e72025-08-20T02:43:39ZengCopernicus PublicationsGeoscientific Model Development1991-959X1991-96032025-07-01184137415310.5194/gmd-18-4137-2025Assessing the climate impact of an improved volcanic sulfate aerosol representation in E3SMZ. Ke0Z. Ke1Q. Tang2J.-C. Golaz3X. Liu4H. Wang5Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Atmospheric, Earth, & Energy Science Division, Livermore, CA, USADesert Research Institute, Division of Atmospheric Sciences, Reno, NV, USALawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Atmospheric, Earth, & Energy Science Division, Livermore, CA, USALawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Atmospheric, Earth, & Energy Science Division, Livermore, CA, USADepartment of Atmospheric Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USAPacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA<p>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 (SO<span class="inline-formula"><sub>2</sub></span>) 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.</p>https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/18/4137/2025/gmd-18-4137-2025.pdf |
| spellingShingle | Z. Ke Z. Ke Q. Tang J.-C. Golaz X. Liu H. Wang Assessing the climate impact of an improved volcanic sulfate aerosol representation in E3SM Geoscientific Model Development |
| title | Assessing the climate impact of an improved volcanic sulfate aerosol representation in E3SM |
| title_full | Assessing the climate impact of an improved volcanic sulfate aerosol representation in E3SM |
| title_fullStr | Assessing the climate impact of an improved volcanic sulfate aerosol representation in E3SM |
| title_full_unstemmed | Assessing the climate impact of an improved volcanic sulfate aerosol representation in E3SM |
| title_short | Assessing the climate impact of an improved volcanic sulfate aerosol representation in E3SM |
| title_sort | assessing the climate impact of an improved volcanic sulfate aerosol representation in e3sm |
| url | https://gmd.copernicus.org/articles/18/4137/2025/gmd-18-4137-2025.pdf |
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