Oceanic Thermohaline Circulation and Property Changes to Volcanic Eruption: Preliminary results

Abstract

The oceanic thermohaline circulation and property changes in response to the volcanic eruption are investigated using a coupled atmosphere-ocean-sea ice climate model. The atmosphere model is an energy balance model and the ocean model is a three dimension comprehensive model. Volcanic eruption provides gases in the atmosphere which increases the aerosol optical depth and acts to reduce the incoming shortwave radiation. Two numerical experiments are simulated. The first experiment features the Pinatubo eruption and the second experiment simulates the much larger volcanic eruption occurred at 1259 when the radiative forcing reduced by 7 times the Pinatubo case. The huge volcanic eruption event could result in a marked change in ocean circulation and properties and thus a significant impact on global climate for up to several years as in the case of the Little Ice Age.