FOR 2820:  Revisiting The Volcanic Impact on Atmosphere and Climate – Preparations for the Next Big Volcanic Eruption

• Subject Area: Geosciences
• Term: since 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 398006378

The main objective of VolImpact is to deepen our understanding of how atmosphere and climate respond to volcanic eruptions by building on important recent advances in models and measurements, particularly satellite measurements. Regarding model simulations, we will mainly employ models of the ICON family. In terms of satellite measurements, we will retrieve and improve our own VolImpact data sets (e.g. of volcanic plume height, stratospheric aerosol optical depth and particle size information) and use existing data sets provided by other groups. The actual research will be carried out in five science projects focusing on the initial development of explosive volcanic plumes (project VolPlume), the variation of parameters (extinction profiles, optical depth and particle size distribution) of stratospheric aerosols (VolARC) caused by volcanic eruptions, volcanic effects on clouds (VolCloud), on the dynamics and thermal structure of the middle atmosphere (with a focus on the mesosphere, VolDyn) as well as on climate (VolClim). In all five projects, the planned science activities are based on the current phase I but important new aspects are added. For example, in VolDyn, the science focus is now on mesospheric effects of volcanic eruptions (which are least understood) and VolClim will have a new subproject in phase II dealing with the application of artificial intelligence / machine learning techniques for predicting the effects of volcanic eruptions. For phase II we have defined three overarching science topics that will be addressed by multiple VolImpact projects. These topics are (1) the aerosol particle size distribution, (2) volcanic H2O injections into the middle atmosphere, and (3) radiative forcing. Significantly enhancing the work in phase I, we will employ a seamless simulation approach involving different nests in order to be able to consistently simulate all processes at their relevant scales, from the initial development of the volcanic plume up to global and long-term scales.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• International Connection: Australia, United Kingdom, USA

Projects

• Cloud response to volcanic eruptions (VolCloud) (Applicants Hoose, Corinna ;  Quaas, Johannes )
• Constraining the effects of volcanic eruptions on stratospheric aerosols and radiative forcing (Applicants Rozanov, Alexei ;  von Savigny, Ph.D., Christian ;  Schmidt, Hauke )
• Coordination Funds (Applicant von Savigny, Ph.D., Christian )
• Volcanic Impact on surface climate (VolClim) (Applicants Kadow, Christopher ;  Timmreck, Claudia )
• Volcanic impacts on atmospheric dynamics (VolDyn) (Applicants Schmidt, Hauke ;  Wallis, Sandra )
• Volcanic Plume Evolution and Injection Profiles (VolPlume) (Applicants Horvath, Akos ;  Hoshyaripour, Gholamali )

• Spokesperson: Professor Christian von Savigny, Ph.D.