DOI: 10.5061/dryad.gxd2547v6
title: Long-term climate impacts of large stratospheric water vapor perturbations: Postprocessed WACCM data (Part 3)

description: The amount of water vapor injected into the stratosphere after the
 eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai (HTHH) was unprecedented, and it is
 therefore unclear what it might mean for surface climate. We use chemistry
 climate model simulations to assess the long-term surface impacts of
 stratospheric water vapor (SWV) anomalies similar to those caused by HTHH,
 but neglect the relatively minor aerosol loading from the eruption. The
 simulations show that the SWV anomalies lead to strong and persistent
 warming of Northern Hemisphere landmasses in boreal winter, and austral
 winter cooling over Australia, years after eruption, demonstrating that
 large SWV forcing can have surface impacts on a decadal timescale. We also
 emphasize that the surface response to SWV anomalies is more complex than
 simple warming due to greenhouse forcing and is influenced by factors such
 as regional circulation patterns and cloud feedbacks. Further research is
 needed to fully understand the multi-year effects of SWV anomalies and
 their relationship with climate phenomena like El Nino Southern
 Oscillation.
description: This is output data from the Whole Atmosphere Chemistry Climate
 Model which forms the basis of the associated
 paper. The data is further postprocessed and split into 29
 10-year ensemble members.
description: # Long-term climate impacts of large stratospheric water vapor
 perturbations: Postprocessed WACCM data
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.gxd2547v6](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.gxd2547v6) This is data used for the paper Jucker, M., C. Lucas, and D. Dutta, 2024: Long-term climate impacts of large stratospheric water vapor perturbations. J. Climate, doi [10.1175/JCLI-D-23-0437.1](https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-23-0437.1). ## File structure The filenames follow a simple structure, except a few files which are described independently below. The main structure is `waccm_ [+ _] [+ season_] + {ctrl,pert,delta}_ + ens.nc` This encodes the following information: * `waccm_` means the data comes from WACCM * `_` is optional and only present if only that one variable is contained int he file * `season_` is optional and denotes files which have been averaged over full seasons. If `season_` is not present, the data is monthly (default). * `{ctrl,pert,delta}_` indicates whether the data comes from the control (`ctrl`), or perturbation (`pert`) simulation. `delta` denotes files which are computed using `ncdiff` between the `pert` and `ctrl` simulations, i.e., they contain the differences between `pert` and `ctrl`. * `ens.nc` means that these files contain the full ensemble information, i.e. there is an additional dimension `member` which denotes the ensemble member. Exception to above structure is * `landmask_waccm.nc` contains the (static) land-sea mask ## Individual files | File | Data | | :----------------------------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------ | | waccm\_ipv\_ctrl\_ens.nc | Isentropic Potential Vorticity, control | | waccm\_season\_delta\_ens.nc | seasonal anomalies | | waccm\_psis\_ctrl\_ens.nc | Residual streamfunction, control | | waccm\_daily\_pert\_ens.nc | daily perturbation | | waccm\_pert\_ens.nc | perturbation | | waccm\_ipv\_season\_pert\_ens.nc | Isentropic Potential Vorticity, seasonal perturbation | | waccm\_ipv\_season\_delta\_ens.nc | Isentropic Potential Vorticity, seasonal anomalies | | waccm\_ipv\_season\_ctrl\_ens.nc | Isentropic Potential Vorticity, seasonal control | | waccm\_ipv\_pert\_ens.nc | Isentropic Potential Vorticity, perturbation | | waccm\_season\_ctrl\_ens.nc | seasonal control | | waccm\_ep\_season\_pert\_ens.nc | Eliassen-Palm fluxes, seasonal perturbation | | waccm\_ep\_season\_delta\_ens.nc | Eliassen-Palm fluxes, seasonal anomalies | | waccm\_ep\_season\_ctrl\_ens.nc | Eliassen-Palm fluxes, seasonal control | | waccm\_ep\_pert\_ens.nc | Eliassen-Palm fluxes, perturbation | | waccm\_ep\_ctrl\_ens.nc | Eliassen-Palm fluxes, control | | waccm\_season\_delta\_ens\_TQM.nc | Total stratospheric water mass, anomalies | | waccm\_psis\_pert\_ens.nc | Residual streamfunction, perturbation | | landmask\_waccm.nc | land-sea mask | | waccm\_waf\_season\_delta\_ens.nc | Wave activity flux, seasonal anomalies | | waccm\_waf\_season\_ctrl\_ens.nc | Wave activity flux, seasonal control | | waccm\_waf\_season\_pert\_ens.nc | Wave activity flux, seasonal perturbation | | waccm\_waf\_pert\_ens.nc | Wave activity flux, perturbation | | waccm\_waf\_ctrl\_ens.nc | Wave activity flux, control | | waccm\_delta\_ens.nc | Wave activity flux, anomalies | | waccm\_ctrl\_ens.nc | Control | | waccm\_daily\_ctrl\_ens.nc | Daily control | | waccm\_season\_pert\_ens.nc | Seasonal perturbation | | waccm\_psis\_season\_pert\_ens.nc | Residual streamfunction, seasonal perturbation | | waccm\_psis\_season\_delta\_ens.nc | Residual streamfunction, seasonal anomalies | | waccm\_psis\_season\_ctrl\_ens.nc | Residual streamfunction, seasonal control | | waccm\_uz\_delta\_season\_notime.nc | Zonal mean zonal wind, seasonal anomalies, arbitrary time dimension | | waccm\_uz\_delta\_monthly\_notime.nc | Zonal mean zonal wind, monthly anomalies, arbitrary time dimension | | waccm\_u\_delta\_season.nc | Zonal mean zonal wind, seasonal anomalies | Please see the [main data repository](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.0zpc8675t) for more information.