Abstract
Climate perturbations caused by sudden injections of aerosols into the atmosphere have received increased attention with the realization that fires started by a nuclear war might release sufficient quantities of smoke to block sunlight from the Earth's surface and dramatically reduce temperatures over land1–3. Three-dimensional atmospheric general circulation models which include aerosol transport indicate that much of the smoke could survive in the atmosphere for months or more4–6, implying significant climatic effects on such timescales, but these models generally assume fixed sea surface temperature and sea ice, and therefore cannot properly simulate cooling for more than a few weeks. This report describes a general circulation model run in which the foregoing assumptions are relaxed and the climate impact of massive smoke loading is assessed for four months of simulated time. Two competing long-term effects are apparent: positive feedback on surface cooling due to enhanced sea ice formation, and surface warming at some latitudes due in part to heat transport from the upper troposphere, where smoke aerosols absorb sunlight.
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Covey, C. Protracted climatic effects of massive smoke injection into the atmosphere. Nature 325, 701–703 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1038/325701a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/325701a0
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