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Coupled Climate Responses to Recent Australian Wildfire and COVID‐19 Emissions Anomalies Estimated in CESM2
Author(s) -
Fasullo J. T.,
Rosenbloom N.,
Buchholz R. R.,
Danabasoglu G.,
Lawrence D. M.,
Lamarque J.F.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2021gl093841
Subject(s) - environmental science , climatology , atmospheric sciences , volcano , southern hemisphere , northern hemisphere , climate model , albedo (alchemy) , radiative transfer , climate change , global cooling , aerosol , meteorology , geology , geography , physics , oceanography , art , quantum mechanics , seismology , performance art , art history
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 global‐mean net top‐of‐atmosphere radiative anomalies of +0.23 ± 0.14 W m −2 driving a gradual global warming of 0.05 ± 0.04 K by the end of 2022. While regional anomalies are detectable 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 globally at − 0.95 ± 0.15 W m −2 in late 2019 with a 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.