Dwindling Effective Radiative Forcing of Large Volcanic Eruption: The Compensation Role of Ocean Latent Heat Flux

Abstract

Abstract Climatic impacts of historical volcanism are principally tied to the eruption size, while observation versus model discrepancies have been commonly attributed to the uncertainties in paleo‐reconstruction or malpresentation of volcanic aerosols in models. Here we present convergent evidence for significant compensation effect of ocean latent heat (LH) in balancing the tropical volcanic‐induced heat loss, by introducing an effective perturbation ratio which is found to decrease with increasing eruption magnitude. Four LH compensation hot spots overlapping with the trade wind regions are identified, together with three western boundary currents regions with intensified LH loss. Comparison between the 1258 Samalas and 1452 Unidentified eruptions suggests considerable modulation of the concurring El Nino‐Southern Oscillation on LH anomaly, which is further verified by CESM large ensemble sensitivity experiments. This study depicts how the interplay between the ocean and the atmosphere could contribute to the overall resilience of the climate system in the face of volcanic disturbances.

Keywords

• latent heat
• volcanic eruption
• compensation
• CESM simulation
• ENSO