Are We Ready for the Next Big Sulfur- and Halogen-rich Eruption in the Tropics?
Thursday, 22 March 2018
Iriarte (Hotel Botanico)
Han Brenna, University of Oslo, Department of Geosciences, Oslo, Norway, Steffen Kutterolf, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Kiel, Germany, Michael J Mills, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, United States and Kirstin Krüger, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
Abstract:
Large Plinian volcanic eruptions inject large amounts of gases (e.g. S, Cl, Br) and solid particles into the stratosphere. If the eruption occurs in the tropics, it can have a global impact due to the dispersal through the large scale meridional overturning circulation. Previous modeling studies mainly concentrate on the sulfate aerosol effects on climate and ozone. In contrast, the role of volcanic halogens from tropical eruptions is believed to play an insignificant role for the global atmosphere, based on observations from the 1982 El Chichón and 1991 Pinatubo eruptions. New measurements regarding the halogen release by paleo Plinian eruptions (Kutterolf et al. 2015), as well as recent volcanic plume observations and model simulations facilitate our investigation into what effect the combined sulfur, chlorine and bromine emissions from large tropical eruptions have on ozone and the atmosphere in general.
The post-Pinatubo period has been volcanically relatively quiet. This means that there are few well-observed large eruptions that can be used as input to modeling studies. Using the large and almost complete eruptive data set from the Central American Volcanic Arc (CAVA) of the last 200 ka, we can construct well constrained input-values to chemistry-climate model simulations. This past record suggests that a future Plinian CAVA eruption will release large amounts of sulfur and halogen. As the chlorine content of the atmosphere decreases during the 21th century future sulfur-and-halogen-rich eruptions will have a large impact on stratospheric ozone and climate.
We will present results from the coupled chemistry climate model CESM(WACCM) of different CAVA eruption strength containing sulfur, chlorine and bromine and their impact on stratospheric ozone. We argue that if humanity wants to be prepared for the next big tropical eruption we need also take volcanic halogens into account due to their potentially large impact on stratospheric composition and chemistry.
