Total volcanic stratospheric aerosol optical depths and implications for global climate change

Ridley, D. A., Solomon, S., Barnes, J. E., Burlakov, V. D., Deshler, T., Dolgii, S. I., Herber, A. B., Nagai, T., Neely, R. R., Nevzorov, A. V., Ritter, C., Sakai, T., Santer, B. D., Sato, M., Schmidt, A., Uchino, O. and Vernier, J. P. (2014) Total volcanic stratospheric aerosol optical depths and implications for global climate change. Geophysical Research Letters, 41 (22). pp. 7763-7769. ISSN 0094-8276

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Abstract

Understanding the cooling effect of recent volcanoes is of particular interest in the context of the post-2000 slowing of the rate of global warming. Satellite observations of aerosol optical depth above 15 km have demonstrated that small-magnitude volcanic eruptions substantially perturb incoming solar radiation. Here we use lidar, Aerosol Robotic Network, and balloon-borne observations to provide evidence that currently available satellite databases neglect substantial amounts of volcanic aerosol between the tropopause and 15 km at middle to high latitudes and therefore underestimate total radiative forcing resulting from the recent eruptions. Incorporating these estimates into a simple climate model, we determine the global volcanic aerosol forcing since 2000 to be -0.19 ± 0.09 Wm-2. This translates into an estimated global cooling of 0.05 to 0.12°C. We conclude that recent volcanic events are responsible for more post-2000 cooling than is implied by satellite databases that neglect volcanic aerosol effects below 15 km.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Publisher Copyright: © 2014. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	aeronet retrieval,forcing uncertainty,lower stratospheric aod,stratospheric aerosol,volcanic aerosol,warming hiatus,geophysics,earth and planetary sciences(all) ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1900/1908
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
Related URLs:	http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?...
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	18 Mar 2026 16:30
Last Modified:	20 Mar 2026 10:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/102440
DOI:	10.1002/2014GL061541

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