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Impact of SO2 injection profiles on simulated volcanic forcing for the 2009 Sarychev eruptions – investigating the importance of using high-vertical-resolution methods when compiling SO2 data

Axebrink, Emma LU ; Sporre, Moa LU orcid and Friberg, Johan LU (2025) In Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 25(4). p.2047-2058
Abstract
Aerosols from volcanic eruptions impact our climate by influencing the Earth's radiative balance. The degree of their climate impact is determined by the location and injection altitude of the volcanic SO2. To investigate the importance of utilizing correct injection altitudes, we ran climate simulations of the June 2009 Sarychev eruptions with three SO2 datasets in the Community Earth System Model version 2 (CESM2), Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model Version 6 (WACCM6). We have compared simulations with WACCM6 default 1 km vertically resolved dataset M16 with our two 200 m vertically resolved datasets, S21-3D and S21-1D. S21-3D is distributed over a large area (30 latitudes and 120 longitudes), whereas S21-1D releases all SO2 in one... (More)
Aerosols from volcanic eruptions impact our climate by influencing the Earth's radiative balance. The degree of their climate impact is determined by the location and injection altitude of the volcanic SO2. To investigate the importance of utilizing correct injection altitudes, we ran climate simulations of the June 2009 Sarychev eruptions with three SO2 datasets in the Community Earth System Model version 2 (CESM2), Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model Version 6 (WACCM6). We have compared simulations with WACCM6 default 1 km vertically resolved dataset M16 with our two 200 m vertically resolved datasets, S21-3D and S21-1D. S21-3D is distributed over a large area (30 latitudes and 120 longitudes), whereas S21-1D releases all SO2 in one latitude and longitude grid box, mimicking the default dataset M16. For S21-1D and S21-3D, 95 % of the SO2 was injected into the stratosphere, whereas M16 injected only 75 % into the stratosphere. This difference is due to the different vertical distributions and resolutions of SO2 in the datasets. The larger portion of SO2 injected into the stratosphere for the S21 datasets leads to more than twice as high sulfate aerosol load in the stratosphere for the S21-3D simulation compared to the M16 simulation during more than 8 months. The temporal evolution in aerosol optical depth (AOD) from our two simulations, S21-3D and S21-1D, follows the observations from the spaceborne lidar instrument CALIOP (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization) closely, while the AOD in the M16 simulation is substantially lower. This indicates that the injection altitude and vertical resolution of the injected volcanic SO2 substantially impact the model's ability to correctly simulate the climate impact from volcanic eruptions. The S21-3D dataset with its high vertical and horizontal resolution resulted in global volcanic forcing of -0.24 Wm-2 during the first year after the eruptions, compared with only -0.11 Wm-2 for M16. Hence, our study highlights the importance of the vertical distribution of SO2 injections in simulations of volcanic climate impact and calls for a re-evaluation of further volcanic eruptions. (Less)
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author
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
volume
25
issue
4
pages
2047 - 2058
publisher
Copernicus GmbH
external identifiers
  • scopus:85218997163
ISSN
1680-7316
DOI
10.5194/acp-25-2047-2025
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
32e3453e-ff1d-4e4f-b262-d82be70bdbc5
date added to LUP
2025-05-22 09:42:58
date last changed
2025-05-23 09:01:04
@article{32e3453e-ff1d-4e4f-b262-d82be70bdbc5,
  abstract     = {{Aerosols from volcanic eruptions impact our climate by influencing the Earth's radiative balance. The degree of their climate impact is determined by the location and injection altitude of the volcanic SO2. To investigate the importance of utilizing correct injection altitudes, we ran climate simulations of the June 2009 Sarychev eruptions with three SO2 datasets in the Community Earth System Model version 2 (CESM2), Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model Version 6 (WACCM6). We have compared simulations with WACCM6 default 1 km vertically resolved dataset M16 with our two 200 m vertically resolved datasets, S21-3D and S21-1D. S21-3D is distributed over a large area (30 latitudes and 120 longitudes), whereas S21-1D releases all SO2 in one latitude and longitude grid box, mimicking the default dataset M16. For S21-1D and S21-3D, 95 % of the SO2 was injected into the stratosphere, whereas M16 injected only 75 % into the stratosphere. This difference is due to the different vertical distributions and resolutions of SO2 in the datasets. The larger portion of SO2 injected into the stratosphere for the S21 datasets leads to more than twice as high sulfate aerosol load in the stratosphere for the S21-3D simulation compared to the M16 simulation during more than 8 months. The temporal evolution in aerosol optical depth (AOD) from our two simulations, S21-3D and S21-1D, follows the observations from the spaceborne lidar instrument CALIOP (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization) closely, while the AOD in the M16 simulation is substantially lower. This indicates that the injection altitude and vertical resolution of the injected volcanic SO2 substantially impact the model's ability to correctly simulate the climate impact from volcanic eruptions. The S21-3D dataset with its high vertical and horizontal resolution resulted in global volcanic forcing of -0.24 Wm-2 during the first year after the eruptions, compared with only -0.11 Wm-2 for M16. Hence, our study highlights the importance of the vertical distribution of SO2 injections in simulations of volcanic climate impact and calls for a re-evaluation of further volcanic eruptions.}},
  author       = {{Axebrink, Emma and Sporre, Moa and Friberg, Johan}},
  issn         = {{1680-7316}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{02}},
  number       = {{4}},
  pages        = {{2047--2058}},
  publisher    = {{Copernicus GmbH}},
  series       = {{Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics}},
  title        = {{Impact of SO2 injection profiles on simulated volcanic forcing for the 2009 Sarychev eruptions – investigating the importance of using high-vertical-resolution methods when compiling SO2 data}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-2047-2025}},
  doi          = {{10.5194/acp-25-2047-2025}},
  volume       = {{25}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}