English

Climate Forcing by the Volcanic Eruption of Mount Pinatubo. Revised edition

Geophysics 2015-06-26 v1 Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics

Abstract

We determine the volcano climate sensitivity and response time for the Mount Pinatubo eruption. This is achieved using observational measurements of the temperature anomalies of the lower troposphere and the aerosol optical density (AOD) in combination with a radiative forcing proxy for AOD. Using standard linear response theory we find sensitivity = 0.18 +- 0.04 K/(W/m2), which implies a negative feedback of -1.0 +- 0.4. The intrinsic response time is 5.8+-1.0 months. Both results are contrary to the conventional paradigm that includes long response times and positive feedback. In addition, we analyze the outgoing longwave radiation during the Pinatubo eruption and find that its time dependence follows the forcing much more closely than the temperature, and even has an amplitude equal to that of the AOD proxy. This finding is independent of the response time and feedback results.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.physics/0509166,
  title  = {Climate Forcing by the Volcanic Eruption of Mount Pinatubo. Revised edition},
  author = {David H. Douglass and Robert S. Knox},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0509166},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

22 pages, including 4 figures. Revised version of a paper [Douglass D. H. and R. S. Knox (2005), Climate forcing by the volcano eruption of Mount Pinatubo. Geophys. Res. Lett. 32, L05710.doi: 10.1029/2004GL022119]. Revision is based on subsequent comments and replies to appear in the same journal. Quantitative results have only minor changes