Publications Lacis and Mishchenko 1995 Lacis, A.A., and M.I. Mishchenko 1995. John Wiley Sons.
Atmospheric aerosols are a significant source of direct and indirect global climate forcing.
Major volcanic eruptions such as Pinatubo, which occur infrequently and presumably at random, inject large amounts of sulfuric compounds into the stratosphere, producing a globally dispersed aerosol that reduces the solar enery input and cools the global climate for a period of several years. Such a major volcano can serve as a very effective natural climate forcing experiment to test and calibrate out remote-sensing measurement techniques and capabilities, and to asses the ability of our global climate models to predict the magnitude and duration of the climate perturbation in response to the radiative forcing imposed by the volcanic aerosol. Return to the publications menu .