Eric Worrall writes:
The volcano Mount Sangeang Api in the Lesser Sunda Islands has just erupted, sending a huge ash cloud 12 miles into the air.
Wikipedia describes Sangeang Api as a volcano complex with 2 active cones, Doro Api 1,949 metres (6,394 ft) and Doro Mantoi. 1,795 m (5,889 ft). Indonesia has a number of very active volcanoes, including volcanoes which threaten major cities, such as the infamous Mount Merapi.
Merapi, which has erupted several times in the last decade, is located just 17 miles from the city of Yogyakarta, home of 2.5 million people.
Near equatorial volcanoes like Sangeang Api are useful to global warming modellers, as the ash cloud can usually be detected in both hemispheres. They provide a convenient excuse for the short term cooling of the entire Earth.
Some spectacular pictures in the following link:-
Oh well, looks like it is not going to have a strong enough impact to check my dervided scaling for volcanic forcing of 33 W/m2 * AOD.
http://climategrog.wordpress.com/?attachment_id=884
I was getting excited for moment. 🙁
“Believe it or not, before the last glacial period concluded, Japan was not settled, because of the number of seismic and volcanic eruptions.”
I think that is not correct.
Check out the Ainu.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ainu_people
GeoLurking
Such is currently circulation in the tropopause.
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/intraseasonal/z200anim.gif
Nothing to do with Volcanoes, one of our ever daft Texan preachers has the answer! http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/06/01/texas-pastor-matthew-hagee-ends-global-warming-debate-video_n_5427843.html?utm_hp_ref=uk
If ENSO functions as a negative feedback, a reduction in surface forcing due to stratospheric volcanic aerosols should exacerbate the El Nino conditions rather than diminish them.
VEI 3 won’t do very much cooling.
Ulric, my thoughts: We already have clouds keeping the Sun’s rays at bay during warmer ocean surface temperatures (the winds have died down and the waters are layering just like a big ol’ bday cake and evaporating off clouds). That means we aren’t getting much extra heat from the Sun under normal El Nino conditions (relative to the clear skies of La Nina). At issue here is are the neutral conditions (such as we are presently under). Long lasting neutral conditions have the potential of eventually recharging the oceans, though a short term true La Nina can do it in half the time-or there abouts as a guess. I have yet to see any solar veil sulfur load across the equatorial Pacific. So I don’t know if this explosion will reduce any solar recharge phase be it short or long term. But it will not do much under El Nino conditions to worsen it. The clouds already there do that job.
If you look at the increase of sea ice in the south, it is seen that there has been a violent growth in 2008, at a time of very low solar minimum.
http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/seaice.anomaly.antarctic.png