Recent studies have demonstrated the influence of the stratosphere on the climate. However, the limited period of instrumental observations prevents us from obtaining a clear picture of role of the stratosphere in modulating the climate responses to internal (e.g., El Niño Southern Oscillation) and external (e.g., volcanic) forcings, and its contribution to explain anomalous periods before the industrial era. PALEOSTRAT (PALEOmodelization from a STRATospheric perspective) is a funded project by the Spanish government which will investigate the impact of the stratosphere on the climate of the Last Millennium (LM), with focus on the preindustrial era (850-1850 CE). This will be addressed by means of a suite of LM simulations with the CESM model which only differ in the representation of the stratosphere, so that their comparisons will unambiguously quantify the impact of the middle-atmosphere on the surface climate. Uncertainties related to external forcings will also be addressed by comparing business-as-usual LM model simulations with LM runs forced with novel external forcing histories and innovative model implementations, which include an explicit representation of volcanic aerosols and their evolution following major eruptions. PALEOSTRAT will also offer an unprecedented opportunity to explore the vertical coupling on multidecadal and longer time scales.

Trabajo presentado en el WCRP/SPARC workshop: Challenges for Climate Science – Synergies between SPARC and the WCRP Grand Challenges, celebrado en Berlin (Alemania), del 31 de octubre al 1 de noviembre de 2016

PALEOSTRAT (CGL2015-69699-R) is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO)

Peer reviewed