Journal article
General circulation model simulation of mild nuclear winter effects
AB Pittock, K Walsh, JS Frederiksen
Climate Dynamics | SPRINGER | Published : 1989
DOI: 10.1007/BF01058235
Abstract
The climatic effects of an elevated uniform global layer of purely absorbing smoke of absorption optical depth 0.2 have been simulated using a version of the 9-level spectral model of McAvaney et al. (1978). The model was run at rhomboidal wave number 21 with convective adjustment, prognostic precipitation and soil hydrology, but fixed zonally averaged climatological cloud and fixed sea surface temperature, for constant January and July conditions with and without smoke absorption. Results show a reduction in convective rainfall in the tropics and monsoonal regions of the order of 50%, with diurnal average soil surface coolings of several degrees C except in those locations where the reducti..
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Funding Acknowledgements
This work was made possible by a grant from the Australian Government through the Department of Foreign Affairs, and was largely inspired by the international research effort on the environmental effects of nuclear war which was coordinated by the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment under the leadership of Sir Frederick Warner. Useful encouragement and advice was received from R. C. Malone of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico. The authors are particularly indebted to the scientists who built the climate model at the former Australian Numerical Meteorology Research Centre and the present Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre, notably W. P. Bourke, T. L. Hart, B.J. McAvaney, J.L. McGregor, and K. Puri. In particular, B.J. McAvaney was responsible for the recent vectorization of the model for use on the Cyber 205 computer.