eVolv2k: Ice core-based volcanic forcing of climate variability for the past 2000 years
Final Report Abstract
The eVolv2k project has produced a new dataset of volcanic forcing of climate over the past 2500 years, using novel data from ice cores from Antarctica and Greenland. The project has also supported the development of the Easy Volcanic Aerosol (EVA) forcing generator, which is used to translate ice core-based estimates of past volcanic activity into the full field optical properties needed for robust implementation in climate models. These two advances support current international climate modeling initiative including the Paleomodelling Intercomparison project (PMIP) and the Modelling Intercomparison Project on the Climatic Response to Volcanic Forcing (VolMIP), both activities within the Coupled Modeling Intercomparison Project (CMIP6). PMIP and VolMIP simulations are currently being initiated at climate modeling centers around the world, performing simulations to help understand the origins of past climate variability in support of the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Thanks to the scientific contributions produce by the eVolv2k project, the project PI Matthew Toohey was recently invited to act as a Contributing Author to the IPCC AR6 Chapter on Natural and Anthropogenic Radiative Forcing. EVA and the eVolv2k database provide a basis for novel investigations into the impact of volcanic eruptions on climate. One of the first studies to use the eVolv2k data set illuminates the strong impact of extratropical NH eruptions on NH temperatures recorded by tree rings over the past millennium, challenging the commonly held perception that tropical eruptions are much more important for climate than extratropical eruptions. Novel extensions of the eVolv2k database over multi-millennial time scales are shining light on the origins of long-term variability of climate.
Publications
- How Did Climate and Humans Respond to Past Volcanic Eruptions?, Eos (Washington. DC)., 97, 1–3, 2016
Toohey, M., Ludlow, F. and LeGrande, A.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1029/2016EO062599) - Easy Volcanic Aerosol (EVA v1.0): an idealized forcing generator for climate simulations, Geosci. Model Dev., 9(11), 4049–4070, 2016
Toohey, M., Stevens, B., Schmidt, H. and Timmreck, C.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-4049-2016) - Interdisciplinary views on the impacts of volcanic eruptions: from global to personal, Past Global Changes Magazine 24(2): 78, 2016
Toohey, M., Ludlow, F., LeGrande, A. N. and Anchukaitis, K. J., Sigl, M.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.22498/pages.24.2.78) - Multi-model comparison of the volcanic sulfate deposition from the 1815 eruption of Mt. Tambora, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18(3)
Marshall, L., Schmidt, A., Toohey, M., Carslaw, K. S., Mann, G. W., Sigl, M., Khodri, M., Timmreck, C., Zanchettin, D., Ball, W. T., Bekki, S., Brooke, J., Dhomse, S., Johnson, C., Lamarque, J.-F., Legrande, A. N., Mills, M. J., Niemeier, U., Pope, J. O., Poulain, V., Robock, A., Rozanov, E., Stenke, A., Sukhodolov, T., Tilmes, S., Tsigaridis, K. and Tummon, F.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-2307-2018) - The PMIP4 contribution to CMIP6 - Part 3: The last millennium, scientific objective, and experimental design for the PMIP4 past1000 simulations, Geosci. Model Dev., 10(11), 4005–4033, 2017
Jungclaus, J. H., ..., and Zorita, E.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-10-4005-2017) - Volcanic stratospheric sulfur injections and aerosol optical depth from 500 BCE to 1900 CE, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 9(2), 809–831, 2017
Toohey, M. and Sigl, M.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-809-2017) - The Interactive Stratospheric Aerosol Model Intercomparison Project (ISA-MIP): motivation and experimental design, Geosci. Model Dev., 11(7), 2581–2608, 2018
Timmreck, C., Mann, G. W., Aquila, V., Hommel, R., Lee, L. A., Schmidt, A., Brühl, C., Carn, S., Chin, M., Dhomse, S. S., Diehl, T., English, J. M., Mills, M. J., Neely, R., Sheng, J., Toohey, M. and Weisenstein, D.
(See online at https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-2581-2018)
