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1. Global hydroclimatic response to tropical volcanic eruptions over the last millennium

   https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2019145118  

   Tejedor, Ernesto ; Steiger, Nathan J. ; Smerdon, Jason E. ; Serrano-Notivoli, Roberto ; Vuille, Mathias ( March 2021 , Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)

   null (Ed.)

   Large tropical volcanic eruptions can affect the climate of many regions on Earth, yet it is uncertain how the largest eruptions over the past millennium may have altered Earth’s hydroclimate. Here, we analyze the global hydroclimatic response to all the tropical volcanic eruptions over the past millennium that were larger than the Mount Pinatubo eruption of 1991. Using the Paleo Hydrodynamics Data Assimilation product (PHYDA), we find that these large volcanic eruptions tended to produce dry conditions over tropical Africa, Central Asia and the Middle East and wet conditions over much of Oceania and the South American monsoon region. These anomalies are statistically significant, and they persisted for more than a decade in some regions. The persistence of the anomalies is associated with southward shifts in the Intertropical Convergence Zone and sea surface temperature changes in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. We compare the PHYDA results with the stand-alone model response of the Community Earth System Model (CESM)-Last Millennium Ensemble. We find that the proxy-constrained PHYDA estimates are larger and more persistent than the responses simulated by CESM. Understanding which of these estimates is more realistic is critical for accurately characterizing the hydroclimate risks of future volcanic eruptions. 

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2. Climate Model Teleconnection Patterns Govern the Niño-3.4 Response to Early Nineteenth-Century Volcanism in Coral-Based Data Assimilation Reconstructions

   https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-20-0549.1  

   Sanchez, Sara C. ; Hakim, Gregory J. ; Saenger, Casey P. ( March 2021 , Journal of Climate)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract Scientific understanding of low-frequency tropical Pacific variability, especially responses to perturbations in radiative forcing, suffers from short observational records, sparse proxy networks, and bias in model simulations. Here, we combine the strengths of proxies and models through coral-based paleoclimate data assimilation. We combine coral archives ( δ 18 O, Sr/Ca) with the dynamics, spatial teleconnections, and intervariable relationships of the CMIP5/PMIP3 Past1000 experiments using the Last Millennium Reanalysis data assimilation framework. This analysis creates skillful reconstructions of tropical Pacific temperatures over the observational era. However, during the period of intense volcanism in the early nineteenth century, southwestern Pacific corals produce El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) reconstructions that are of opposite sign from those from eastern Pacific corals and tree ring records. We systematically evaluate the source of this discrepancy using 1) single-proxy experiments, 2) varied proxy system models (PSMs), and 3) diverse covariance patterns from the Past1000 simulations. We find that individual proxy records and coral PSMs do not significantly contribute to the discrepancy. However, following major eruptions, the southwestern Pacific corals locally record more persistent cold anomalies than found in the Past1000 experiments and canonical ENSO teleconnections to the southwest Pacific strongly control the reconstruction response. Furthermore, using covariance patterns independent of ENSO yields reconstructions consistent with coral archives across the Pacific. These results show that model bias can strongly affect how proxy information is processed in paleoclimate data assimilation. As we illustrate here, model bias influences the magnitude and persistence of the response of the tropical Pacific to volcanic eruptions. 

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3. A data assimilation approach to last millennium temperature field reconstruction using a limited high-sensitivity proxy network

   https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-20-0661.1  

   King, Jonathan M. ; Anchukaitis, Kevin J. ; Tierney, Jessica E. ; Hakim, Gregory J. ; Emile-Geay, Julien ; Zhu, Feng ; Wilson, Rob ( May 2021 , Journal of Climate)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract We use theNorthern Hemisphere Tree-RingNetwork Development (NTREND) tree-ring database to examine the effects of using a small, highly-sensitive proxy network for paleotemperature data assimilation over the last millennium. We first evaluate our methods using pseudo-proxy experiments. These indicate that spatial assimilations using this network are skillful in the extratropical Northern Hemisphere and improve on previous NTREND reconstructions based on Point-by-Point regression. We also find our method is sensitive to climate model biases when the number of sites becomes small. Based on these experiments, we then assimilate the real NTREND network. To quantify model prior uncertainty, we produce 10 separate reconstructions, each assimilating a different climate model. These reconstructions are most dissimilar prior to 1100 CE, when the network becomes sparse, but show greater consistency as the network grows. Temporal variability is also underestimated before 1100 CE. Our assimilation method produces spatial uncertainty estimates and these identify treeline North America and eastern Siberia as regions that would most benefit from development of new millennial-length temperature-sensitive tree-ring records. We compare our multi-model mean reconstruction to five existing paleo-temperature products to examine the range of reconstructed responses to radiative forcing. We find substantial differences in the spatial patterns and magnitudes of reconstructed responses to volcanic eruptions and in the transition between the Medieval epoch and Little Ice Age. These extant uncertainties call for the development of a paleoclimate reconstruction intercomparison framework for systematically examining the consequences of proxy network composition and reconstruction methodology and for continued expansion of tree-ring proxy networks. 

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4. Minor impacts of major volcanic eruptions on hurricanes in dynamically-downscaled last millennium simulations

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-021-06057-4  

   Benton, Brandon N. ; Alessi, Marc J. ; Herrera, Dimitris A. ; Li, Xiaolu ; Carrillo, Carlos M. ; Ault, Toby R. ( February 2022 , Climate Dynamics)

   The effects of volcanic eruptions on hurricane statistics are examined using two long simulations from the Community Earth System Model (CESM) Last Millennium Ensemble (LME). The first is an unforced control simulation, wherein all boundary conditions were held constant at their 850 CE values (LME_control). The second is a “fully forced” simulation with time evolving radiative changes from volcanic, solar, and land use changes from 850 CE through present (LME_forced). Large tropical volcanic eruptions produce the greatest change in radiative forcing during this time period, which comprise the focus of this study. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is used to dynamically downscale 150 control years of LME_controland an additional 84 years of LME_forcedfor all mid-latitude volcanic eruptions between 1100 and 1850 CE. This time period was selected based on computational considerations. For each eruption, 2 years are dynamically downscaled. 23 of these volcanic eruptions are in the Northern Hemisphere and 19 are in the Southern Hemisphere. The effectiveness of the downscaling methodology is examined by applying the same downscaling approach to historical ERA-I reanalysis data and comparing the downscaled storm tracks and intensities to the International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS) database. Hurricane statistics are then computed from both the downscaled control and downscaled forced LME simulations. Results suggest moderate effects on hurricanes from the average of all northern hemisphere eruptions, with the largest effects being from the volcanoes with the most aerosol forcing. More specifically, reductions in hurricane frequency, intensity, and lifetime following northern hemisphere eruptions are apparent. Strong evidence is also shown for correlation between eruption strength and changes in these diagnostics. The aggregate effect from both northern and southern hemisphere eruptions is minor. While reductions in frequency, intensity, and lifetime from northern hemisphere eruptions occur, the opposite effect is observed from southern hemisphere eruptions.

    

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5. Minor impacts of major volcanic eruptions on hurricanes in dynamically-downscaled last millennium simulations

   Brandon N. Benton, Marc J. ( February 2022 , Climate dynamics)

   The effects of volcanic eruptions on hurricane statistics are examined using two long simulations from the Community Earth System Model (CESM) Last Millennium Ensemble (LME). The first is an unforced control simulation, wherein all boundary conditions were held constant at their 850 CE values (LMEcontrol). The second is a “fully forced” simulation with time evolving radiative changes from volcanic, solar, and land use changes from 850 CE through present (LMEforced). Large tropical volcanic eruptions produce the greatest change in radiative forcing during this time period, which comprise the focus of this study. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is used to dynamically downscale 150 control years of LMEcontrol and an additional 84 years of LMEforced for all mid-latitude volcanic eruptions between 1100 and 1850 CE. This time period was selected based on computational considerations. For each eruption, 2 years are dynamically downscaled. 23 of these volcanic eruptions are in the Northern Hemisphere and 19 are in the Southern Hemisphere. The effectiveness of the downscaling methodology is examined by applying the same downscaling approach to historical ERA-I reanalysis data and comparing the downscaled storm tracks and intensities to the International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS) database. Hurricane statistics are then computed from both the downscaled control and downscaled forced LME simulations. Results suggest moderate effects on hurricanes from the average of all northern hemisphere eruptions, with the largest effects being from the volcanoes with the most aerosol forcing. More specifically, reductions in hurricane frequency, intensity, and lifetime following northern hemisphere eruptions are apparent. Strong evidence is also shown for correlation between eruption strength and changes in these diagnostics. The aggregate effect from both northern and southern hemisphere eruptions is minor. While reductions in frequency, intensity, and lifetime from northern hemisphere eruptions occur, the opposite effect is observed from southern hemisphere eruptions. 

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