EGU21-15234
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-15234
EGU General Assembly 2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volcanic impact on the tropical hydrological cycle 

Roberta D'Agostino and Claudia Timmreck
Roberta D'Agostino and Claudia Timmreck
  • Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Land in the Earth System, Hamburg, Germany (roberta.dagostino@mpimet.mpg.de)

The impact of volcanic forcing on tropical precipitation is investigated in a new set of sensitivity experiments within Max Planck Institute Grand Ensemble framework. Five ensembles are created, each containing 100 realizations for an idealized tropical volcanic eruption located at the equator, analogous the Mt. Pinatubo eruption, with emissions covering a range of 2.5 - 40 Tg S. The ensembles provide an excellent database to disentangle the influence of volcanic forcing on regional monsoons and tropical hydroclimate over the wide spectrum of the climate internal variability. Monsoons are generally weaker during the two years after volcanic eruptions and their weakening is a function of emissions: the strongest the volcanic eruption, the weakest are the land monsoons. The extent of rain belt is also affected: the monsoon area is overall narrower than the unperturbed control simulation. While the position of main ascents does not change, the idealised tropical volcanic eruption supports the shrinking of Hadley Cell's ascent and the narrowing of the ITCZ. We investigate this behavior by analysing the changes in Hadley/Walker circulation, net energy input and energy budget to find analogies/differences with global warming.

How to cite: D'Agostino, R. and Timmreck, C.: Volcanic impact on the tropical hydrological cycle , EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-15234, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-15234, 2021.