Impact of volcanic eruptions on extratropical atmospheric circulations: review, revisit and future directions

Abstract Understanding the impacts of volcanic eruptions on the atmospheric circulations and surface climate in the extratropics is important for inter-annual to decadal climate prediction. Previous studies on the Northern Hemisphere climate responses to volcanic eruptions have shown that volcanic eruptions likely induce northern Eurasian warming through the intensified Arctic polar vortex in the stratosphere and the positive phase of Arctic Oscillation/North Atlantic Oscillation in the troposphere. However, large uncertainties remain and the detailed physical processes have yet to be determined. The circulation responses in the Southern Hemisphere also remain controversial with large differences between the observed and model-simulated results. In this paper, we review previous studies on the extratropical circulation and surface climate responses to volcanic eruptions and update our un…