Improving climate predictions by refining volcanic impacts

Volcanoes exert complex effects on climate. Credit: Pixabay

Volcanic eruptions inject sulfur dioxide into our stratosphere, causing significant surface temperature variations. Scientists have used models and past climate proxies like tree rings to understand exactly how this climate disruption affected Earth before the rise of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. Model simulations and paleoclimate reconstruction have not matched up in prior research, and a new Climate of the Past study sheds light on why. An international research team, including Kevin Anchukaitis of the University of Arizona, who is supported by a grant from the Climate Program Office’s Climate Observations and Monitoring (COM) program, tried a new approach to modeling past volcanic impacts.