Seasonal Dependence of Volcanic Impacts on ENSO

Image: Mount Tambora, Indonesia: volcano.si.edu

Volcanic eruptions strongly affect the El Nino/Southern Oscillation under some conditions, but the number of unknowns associated with past eruption properties makes it difficult to determine which aspects of the volcano/ENSO interaction are correctly captured by climate models. Idealized experiments run with the CESM are used to determine how the season of eruption occurrence affects the likelihood of El Nino initiation during the following boreal winter, and the ocean heat budget computed for all experiments to analyze the mechanisms for differences between simulations.