- #1
Eagle9
- 238
- 10
Good day
It is well-known fact that the volcanic eruptions cause the global decrease of average temperature. I quickly reviewed the article in wikipedia and several questions arised regarding this issue. There is written in this article (I do not trust Wikipedia very much):
2) What about the sizes of these aerosols?
3) What can you tell me about their exact chemical composition?
4) How are they distributed in stratosphere? Do they occupy the thickness of 10–50 km (these are lower and upper boundaries of stratosphere) equally?
5) After some amount of time (months, years) the effect of “Volcanic winter” weakens, apparently because of the weight of the volcanic aerosols. Do they (chemically) decay or do they sink down towards the Earth’s surface?
6) Are they subjected to the solar radiation? Can this radiation (if strong) evaporate/decay them?
It is well-known fact that the volcanic eruptions cause the global decrease of average temperature. I quickly reviewed the article in wikipedia and several questions arised regarding this issue. There is written in this article (I do not trust Wikipedia very much):
1) So, the most dangerous/active factor that cools our planet is aerosols that are made of volcanic ash+ sulfuric acid, right?A volcanic winter is a reduction in global temperatures caused by volcanic ash and droplets of sulfuric acid obscuring the Sun and raising Earth's albedo (increasing the reflection of solar radiation) after a large particularly explosive volcanic eruption. Long-term cooling effects are primarily dependent upon injection of sulfide compounds in aerosol form into the upper atmosphere—the stratosphere—the highest, least active levels of the lower atmosphere where little precipitation occurs, thus requiring a long time to wash the aerosols out of the region. Stratospheric aerosols cool the surface and troposphere by reflecting solar radiation, warm the stratosphere by absorbing terrestrial radiation, and when combined with anthropogenic chlorine in the stratosphere, destroy ozone which moderates the effect of lower stratospheric warming. The variations in atmospheric warming and cooling results in changes in tropospheric and stratospheric circulation.
2) What about the sizes of these aerosols?
3) What can you tell me about their exact chemical composition?
4) How are they distributed in stratosphere? Do they occupy the thickness of 10–50 km (these are lower and upper boundaries of stratosphere) equally?
5) After some amount of time (months, years) the effect of “Volcanic winter” weakens, apparently because of the weight of the volcanic aerosols. Do they (chemically) decay or do they sink down towards the Earth’s surface?
6) Are they subjected to the solar radiation? Can this radiation (if strong) evaporate/decay them?