Abstract Stratospheric sulfate aerosols from tropical volcanic eruptions alter surface air temperatures. Fundamentally, this is due to two different properties of the aerosols: Their ability to reflect incoming solar shortwave radiation, and their ability to absorb terrestrial longwave radiation. However, the relatedness and dynamical consequences of the two properties are unclear. Here we show that in a state‐of‐the art climate model the two properties have independent and fundamentally different impacts on zonal asymmetries of Northern Hemisphere extra‐tropical winter temperatures: The shortwave properties induce a tropospheric Rossby wave train apparently connected to changes in tropical convection. The longwave properties imprint a wavenumber 1‐like signal on surface temperatures related to altered stratospheric winds. The independence of these responses provides a useful starting point for analyzing the extra‐tropical temperature response to volcanic eruptions in both observations and models.
Observations from the Little Bunker
Last updated: December 30, 2025 02:11 PM
Atmospheric CO₂
427.9 ppm
+18.1
ppm/year
Atmospheric CH₄
1930.95 ppb
+-3.5
ppb/year
Global Temperature
+1.48 °C
Peak: +1.73°C
World Population
8.1 billion
+67
million/year