ACP Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ACP 1680-7324 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acp-9-9043-2009 Initial fate of fine ash and sulfur from large volcanic eruptions Niemeier U. 1 Timmreck C. 1 Graf H.-F. 2 Kinne S. 1 Rast S. 1 Self S. 3 Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Bundesstr. 53, 20146 Hamburg, Germany University of Cambridge, Centre for Atmospheric Science, Downing Place, Cambridge, CB2 3EN, UK Department of Earth Science, Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK 30 11 2009 9 22 9043 9057 This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/9/9043/2009/acp-9-9043-2009.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/9/9043/2009/acp-9-9043-2009.pdf

Large volcanic eruptions emit huge amounts of sulfur and fine ash into the stratosphere. These products cause an impact on radiative processes, temperature and wind patterns. In simulations with a General Circulation Model including detailed aerosol microphysics, the relation between the impact of sulfur and fine ash is determined for different eruption strengths and locations, one in the tropics and one in high Northern latitudes. Fine ash with effective radii between 1 μm and 15 μm has a lifetime of several days only. Nevertheless, the strong absorption of shortwave and long-wave radiation causes additional heating and cooling of ±20 K/day and impacts the evolution of the volcanic cloud. Depending on the location of the volcanic eruption, transport direction changes due to the presence of fine ash, vortices develop and temperature anomalies at ground increase. The results show substantial impact on the local scale but only minor impact on the evolution of sulfate in the stratosphere in the month after the simulated eruptions.

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