GISS Lunch Seminar
Speaker: Kostas Tsigaridis (NASA/GISS/Columbia)
Title: Volcanoes in the Earth system and beyond

Abstract:
Volcanic eruptions can cause major climate perturbations in the Earth system, as we find from studying the history of climate. They range from small-scale events that affect only a limited region, to cataclysmic events that, when isolated, can cause years-long disruptions to the climate system, or when in series, can potentially lead to complete planetary transformation, in geologic time. The ejected material can be a carrier of nutrients (ash) or cool the planet significantly if injected in the stratosphere (sulfate) where it can stay there for years. Volcanoes are very unpredictable: no eruption is the same as any other one, even from the same volcano, while the timing of an eruption is also nearly impossible to foresee in most cases with more than a few days of warning. 

Despite their importance, historical eruptions are very crudely simulated in Earth system models. This limits our understanding of their role on the climate system, and adds large error bars when studying climate during or shortly after large volcanic events. For that reason, GISS ModelE has been extensively used in the last few years to simulate volcanic events as accurately as possible. This presentation will showcase some significant steps forward in our understanding of the role of volcanoes on climate, which was made possible by capitalizing on the state-of-the-art aerosol microphysics model MATRIX. Future work will also be presented, on projects that were very recently funded by NASA to study planetary bodies other than Earth.