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Disputas: Tómas Zoëga

Ph.d.-kandidat Tómas Zoëga ved Institutt for geofag, Det matematisk-naturvitenskapelige fakultet, vil forsvare avhandlingen The climate response to high-latitude effusive volcanic eruptions for graden Philosophiae Doctor.

Tómas Zoëga. Foto: Privat

Tómas Zoëga. Foto: Privat

Disputas og prøveforelesning er i Auditorium 1 i Geologibygningen. I noen tilfeller vil prøveforelesning og disputas være mulig å delta på digitalt, i så fall blir det lagt ut en lenke til Zoom.

Prøveforelesning

Tirsdag 20 mai, 10:15-11:00, Aud 1, Geologibygningen:

The physical science of climate intervention: benefits, perils, and pitfalls 

Kreeringssammendrag

Store vulkanutbrudd kan påvirke klimaet ved utslipp av gasser og aerosoler.  I sin doktorgradsavhandling har Tómas Zoëga undersøkt klimapåvirkningen av effusive vulkanutbrudd, som er utbrudd uten eksplosiv aktivitet  Resultatene fra studien viser at islandske effusive vulkanutbrudd fører til nedkjøling om sommeren, både på høye og midlere breddegrader. Om vinteren fører slike effusive vulkanutbrudd derimot til oppvarming i Arktis.

Hovedfunn

Populærvitenskapelig artikkel om Zoëgas avhandling:

The climate response to high-latitude effusive volcanic eruptions

Effusive volcanic eruptions are characterised by non-explosive activity. They are relatively gentle compared to their explosive counterparts, often resembling boiling stews rather than fireworks. They can impact climate through their emission of gases into the troposphere and the subsequent formation of aerosols.  These aerosols, which are small particles suspended in air, reflect sunlight (shortwave radiation; SW) back to space, leading to cooling of the climate. They also interact with clouds and change their properties. This can lead to clouds reflecting more sunlight, resulting in cooling (the cloud albedo effect), but also increase their ability to trap thermal radiation from the Earth (longwave radiation; LW) close to the ground, resulting in warming (the cloud blanket effect).

In this doctoral thesis, Tómas Zoëga investigates the climate response to high-latitude, long-lasting, effusive volcanic eruptions. This is systematically explored through modelling and observational evidence. The results reveal a highly regional response with a strong seasonal dependency. In agreement with previous studies, these eruptions are found to cause cooling during summer across latitudes. During winter, however, this study finds that effusive volcanic eruptions lead to surface warming in the Arctic through enhanced trapping of terrestrial thermal radiation by thin low-level clouds under limited sunlight. These results highlight processes which play disproportionally large roles in the Arctic, such as the cloud blanket effect mentioned above, and can help us better understand this vulnerable part of the Earth system under the ongoing climate change.

Bildet kan inneholde: diagram.
Figure:  Radiative fluxes in the Arctic during (a) winter and (b) summer. The text in the grey boxes indicates the impacts of volcanic aerosol perturbations, both directly (Aero-LW/SW) and indirectly through aerosol-cloud interactions (Cloud-LW/SW), on LW (wavy orange arrows) and SW (straight yellow arrows) surface radiative fluxes. Dashed arrows indicate radiation which has been partially absorbed or scattered.  Credit: Tómas Zoëga

 

Foto og annen informasjon:

Pressefoto: Tómas Zoëga, portrett; 1500px. Foto: Privat

Annet bildemateriale: Figur med beskrivelse og kreditering som spesifisert i artikkelen over, størrelse 2000px.

Publisert 6. mai 2025 09:31 - Sist endret 26. mai 2025 09:33