Comparison of Volcanic Injection Heights Estimated From Different Methods for Global Climate Models Applications

Abstract:

Volcanic eruptions cause substantial climate and air quality hazards by injecting ash and gaseous material such as sulfur dioxide (SO₂) into the atmosphere. This project identifies volcanic injection heights and SO2 emission amounts as constraints for global climate models such as GEOS-5/GOCART. By collecting and analyzing injection heights and their relationships with other factors, we aim to understand how much of an effect the eruptions have on climate, wind systems, energy budget and the water cycle. The study collected emission height of SO₂ from major volcanic eruptions from 2002-2012 estimated with several different techniques, including the empirical relationships between the volcanic eruption magnitude and injection height, the retrieval of plume height from MISR stereo imaging, the spectral linear fitting using SO₂ column amount from OMI, and the back trajectory analysis. From these comparisons and observations of volcanic plume transport patterns, we construct a database of "volcanic source function" that contains our optimal estimation of volcanic injection heights for major volcanoes together with the total SO₂ amount from OMI. This database will be implemented into the GEOS-5 model to study the environmental effects of volcanic eruptions.