Was there a volcanic-induced long-lasting cooling over the Northern Hemisphere in the mid-6th–7th century?

van Dijk, Evelien; Jungclaus, Johann; Lorenz, Stephan; Timmreck, Claudia; Krüger, Kirstin

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-1601-2022

Articles | Volume 18, issue 7

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-1601-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

Interdisciplinary studies of volcanic impacts on climate and...

https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-1601-2022

© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 18, issue 7

Research article

|

12 Jul 2022

Research article |

| 12 Jul 2022

Was there a volcanic-induced long-lasting cooling over the Northern Hemisphere in the mid-6th–7th century?

Evelien van Dijk, Johann Jungclaus, Stephan Lorenz, Claudia Timmreck, and Kirstin Krüger

Data sets

MPI-ESM 521-680 CE ensemble Stephan Lorenz https://doi.org/10.11582/2022.00029

Northern Hemisphere 2,000 year tree-ring ensemble temperature reconstruction U. Büntgen https://doi.org/10.25921/9986-r929

Short summary

A double volcanic eruption in 536 and 540 CE caused one of the coldest decades during the last 2000 years. We analyzed new climate model simulations from that period and found a cooling of up to 2°C and a sea-ice extent up to 200 km further south. Complex interactions between sea ice and ocean circulation lead to a reduction in the northward ocean heat transport, which makes the sea ice extend further south; this in turn leads to a surface cooling up to 20 years after the eruptions.