DOI: 10.1594/wdcc/evolv2k_v2
title: Reconstructed volcanic stratospheric sulfur injections and aerosol optical depth, 500 BCE to 1900 CE, version 2

description: Project: Earth System Model Forcing and Verification - The project consolidates data entities which are suitable to force and/or to verify Earth system models. The archived data entities contain data and data products mainly from observations or reconstruction. The eVolv2k project is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) in the framework of the priority programme “Antarctic Research with comparative investigations in Arctic ice areas” through grant TO 967/1-1. Summary: The eVolv2k database includes estimates of the magnitudes and approximate source latitudes of major volcanic stratospheric sulphur injection (VSSI) events from 500 BCE to 1900 CE. The VSSI estimates incorporate recent improvements to the ice core records in terms of synchronization and dating, refinements to the methods used to estimate VSSI from ice core records, and includes first estimates of the random uncertainties in VSSI values. Ice core-derived volcanic sulfate deposition composites for Antarctica (Sigl et al., 2014) and Greenland (Sigl et al., 2015, Zielinski et al., 1995) are scaled to volcanic stratospheric sulfur injection based on a method similar to that of Gao et al. (2007). More details to be published in a forthcoming article (Toohey and Sigl, in prep). Compared to version 1, this version (1) contains estimates of the random error in the VSSI estimates, (2) includes a clarification regarding the format of years in the BCE period by including both years BCE/CE and according to the ISO 8601 standard (which includes a year 0), and (3) includes some minor modifications to the VSSI values. In addition, a reconstruction of stratospheric aerosol optical depth (AOD) using the VSSI estimates and the EVA v1 volcanic forcing generator (Toohey et al., 2016) is provided. Complete optical properties (extinction, single scattering albedo, scattering asymmetry factor) as a function of height, latitude and time can be produced using the eVolv2k VSSI database and the EVA forcing generator. Gao, C., Oman, L., Robock, A. and Stenchikov, G. L.: Atmospheric volcanic loading derived from bipolar ice cores: Accounting for the spatial distribution of volcanic deposition, J. Geophys. Res., 112(D9), doi:10.1029/2006JD007461, 2007. Sigl, M., Winstrup, M., McConnell, J. R., Welten, K. C., Plunkett, G., Ludlow, F., Büntgen, U., Caffee, M., Chellman, N., Dahl-Jensen, D., Fischer, H., Kipfstuhl, S., Kostick, C., Maselli, O. J., Mekhaldi, F., Mulvaney, R., Muscheler, R., Pasteris, D. R., Pilcher, J. R., Salzer, M., Schüpbach, S., Steffensen, J. P., Vinther, B. M. and Woodruff, T. E.: Timing and climate forcing of volcanic eruptions for the past 2,500 years, Nature, 523, 543¿549, doi:10.1038/nature14565, 2015. Sigl, M., McConnell, J. R., Toohey, M., Curran, M., Das, S. B., Edwards, R., Isaksson, E., Kawamura, K., Kipfstuhl, S., Krüger, K., Layman, L., Maselli, O. J., Motizuki, Y., Motoyama, H., Pasteris, D. R. and Severi, M.: Insights from Antarctica on volcanic forcing during the Common Era, Nat. Clim. Chang., 4, 693-697, doi:10.1038/nclimate2293, 2014. Toohey, M. and Sigl, M.: Volcanic stratospheric sulphur injections and aerosol optical depth from 500 BCE to 1900 CE, in preparation. Toohey, M., Stevens, B., Schmidt, H. and Timmreck, C.: Easy Volcanic Aerosol (EVA v1.0): an idealized forcing generator for climate simulations, Geosci. Model Dev., 9(11), 4049–4070, doi:10.5194/GMD-9-4049-2016, 2016. Zielinski, G. A.: Stratospheric loading and optical depth estimates of explosive volcanism over the last 2100 years derived from the Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 ice core, J. Geophys. Res., 100(D10), 20937–20955, doi:10.1029/95JD01751, 1995.