Coupled Climate Responses to Recent Australian Wildfire and COVID-19 Emissions Anomalies Estimated in CESM2 | CU Experts

Multiple 50-member ensemble simulations with the Community Earth System; Model version 2 are performed to estimate the coupled climate responses; to the 2019-2020 Australian wildfires and COVID-19 pandemic policies.; The climate response to the pandemic is found to be weak generally, with; net top-of-atmosphere radiative anomalies of +0.23+-0.14 W m/2driving a; gradual global warming of 0.05+-0.04 K by the end of 2022. While; regional anomalies are detectible in aerosol burdens and clear-sky; radiation, few significant anomalies exist in other fields due to; internal variability. In contrast, the simulated response to Australian; wildfires is a strong and rapid cooling, peaking at -0.95+-0.15 W m/2 in; late 2019 with an anomalous global cooling of 0.06+-0.04 K by mid-2020.; Transport of fire aerosols throughout the Southern Hemisphere increases; albedo and drives a strong interhemispheric radiative contrast, with; simulated responses that are consistent generally with those to a; Southern Hemisphere volcanic eruption.

Fasullo JT; Rosenbloom NA; Buchholz RR; Danabasoglu G; Lawrence DM; Lamarque J-F

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