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The Eldgjá eruption is the largest basalt lava flood of the Common Era. It has been linked to a major ice‐core sulfur (S) spike in 939–940 CE and Northern Hemisphere summer cooling in 940 CE. Despite its magnitude and potential climate impacts, uncertainties remain concerning the eruption timeline, atmospheric dispersal of emitted volatiles, and coincident volcanism in Iceland and elsewhere. Here, we present a comprehensive analysis of Greenland ice‐cores from 936 to 943 CE, revealing a complex volatile record and cryptotephra with numerous geochemical populations. Transitional alkali basalt tephra matching Eldgjá are found in 939–940 CE, while tholeiitic basalt shards present in 936/937 CE and 940/941 CE are compatible with contemporaneous Icelandic eruptions from Grímsvötn and Bárðarbunga‐Veiðivötn systems (including V‐Sv tephra). We also find four silicic tephra populations, one of which we link to the Jala Pumice of Ceboruco (Mexico) at 941 ± 1 CE. Triple S isotopes, Δ33S, spanning 936–940 CE are indicative of upper tropospheric/lower stratospheric transport of aerosol sourced from the Icelandic fissure eruptions. However, anomalous Δ33S (down to −0.4‰) in 940–941 CE evidence stratospheric aerosol transport consistent with summer surface cooling revealed by tree‐ring reconstructions. Tephra associated with the anomalous Δ33S have a variety of compositions, complicating the attribution of climate cooling to Eldgjá alone. Nevertheless, our study confirms a major S emission from Eldgjá in 939–940 CE and implicates Eldgjá and a cluster of eruptions as triggers of summer cooling, severe winters, and privations in ∼940 CE. Plain Language Summary: The eruption of Eldgjá in the tenth century is the largest lava flood in the history of Iceland. Although Eldgjá emitted immense volumes of ash, lava, and gas, the exact timing and duration of this eruption, as well as its environmental and climatic impact remain unclear. Here, we provide a comprehensive chemical analysis of Greenland ice‐core records spanning the period 936–943 CE. We identify volcanic ash from at least three different Icelandic eruptions and confirm that there was a major ash and gas emission from Eldgjá in 939 CE. Using tree ring temperature estimates we find strong evidence for Northern Hemisphere climate cooling in the summer of 940 CE. However, the variety of volcanic ash identified in the ice‐cores shows that several Icelandic and Northern Hemisphere arc volcanoes were also erupting in this period. While Eldgjá remains the prime candidate, these additional eruptions complicate the attribution of reported climate and societal changes to Eldgjá alone. Ultimately, our study sheds new light on a cluster of volcanic eruptions between 936 and 943 CE and highlights the challenges of disentangling the individual contributions of multiple eruptions on the environment and climate. Key Points: New analyses of Greenland ice‐core records of volcanism between 936 and 943 CEIcelandic eruptions from Grímsvötn and Bárðarbunga‐Veiðivötn detected between 936 and 941 CE, and major Eldgjá emission in 939–940 CEVarious silicic eruptions identified, including the Jala Pumice (Mexico), providing new and valuable trans‐continental tephra isochrons [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Volcanic eruptions impact the climate and environment. The volcanic forcing is determined by eruption source parameters, including the mass and composition of volcanic volatiles, eruption season, eruption latitude, and injection altitude. Moreover, initial atmospheric conditions of the climate system play an important role in shaping the volcanic forcing and response. However, our understanding of the combination of these factors, the distinctions between tropical and extratropical volcanic eruptions, and the co-injection of sulfur and halogens remains limited. Here, we perform ensemble simulations of volcanic eruptions at 15 and 64° N in January, injecting 17 Mt of SO 2 together with HCl and HBr at 24 km altitude. Our findings reveal that initial atmospheric conditions control the transport of volcanic volatiles from the first month and modulate the subsequent latitudinal distribution of sulfate aerosols and halogens. This results in different volcanic forcing, surface temperature and ozone responses over the globe and Northern Hemisphere extratropics (NHET) among the model ensemble members with different initial atmospheric conditions. NH extratropical eruptions exhibit a larger NHET mean volcanic forcing, surface cooling and ozone depletion compared with tropical eruptions. However, tropical eruptions lead to more prolonged impacts compared with NH extratropical eruptions, both globally and in the NHET. The sensitivity of volcanic forcing to varying eruption source parameters and model dependency is discussed, emphasizing the need for future multi-model studies to consider the influence of initial conditions and eruption source parameters on volcanic forcing and subsequent impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Volcanic eruptions impact the climate and environment. The volcanic forcing is determined by eruption source parameters, including mass and composition of volcanic volatiles, eruption season, eruption latitude and injection altitude. Moreover, initial conditions of the climate system play an important role in shaping the volcanic response. However, our understanding of the combination of these factors, the distinctions between tropical and extratropical volcanic eruptions and the co–injection of sulfur and halogens remains limited. Here, we perform ensemble simulations of volcanic eruptions at 15° N and 64° N in January, injecting 17 Mt of SO2 together with HCl and HBr at 24 km altitude, considering different initial conditions of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation, Quasi–Biennial Oscillation, and polar vortex. Our findings reveal that initial conditions control the transport of volcanic volatiles from the rst month and modulate the subsequent latitudinal distribution of sulfate aerosols and halogens. This results in different volcanic forcing, surface temperature and ozone responses over the globe and Northern Hemisphere Extratropics (NHET) among the model ensemble members with different initial conditions. NH extratropical eruptions exhibit a larger NHET mean volcanic forcing, surface cooling and ozone depletion compared to tropical eruptions. However, tropical eruptions lead to more prolonged impacts compared to NH extratropical eruptions, both globally and in the NHET. The sensitivity of volcanic forcing to varying eruption source parameters and model dependency is discussed, emphasizing the need for future multi–model studies to consider the influence of initial conditions and eruption source parameters on volcanic forcing and subsequent impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Volcanic eruptions impact the climate and environment. The volcanic forcing is determined by eruption source parameters, including mass and composition of volcanic volatiles, eruption season, eruption latitude and injection altitude. Moreover, initial conditions of the climate system play an important role in shaping the volcanic response. However, our understanding of the combination of these factors, the distinctions between tropical and extratropical volcanic eruptions and the co-injection of sulfur and halogens remains limited. Here, we perform ensemble simulations of volcanic eruptions at 15° N and 64° N in January, injecting 17 Mt of SO2 together with HCl and HBr at 24 km altitude, considering different initial conditions of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, Quasi-Biennial Oscillation, and polar vortex. Our findings reveal that initial conditions control the transport of volcanic volatiles from the first month and modulate the subsequent latitudinal distribution of sulfate aerosols and halogens. This results in different volcanic forcing, surface temperature and ozone responses over the globe and Northern Hemisphere Extratropics (NHET) among the model ensemble members with different initial conditions. NH extratropical eruptions exhibit a larger NHET mean volcanic forcing, surface cooling and ozone depletion compared to tropical eruptions. However, tropical eruptions lead to more prolonged impacts compared to NH extratropical eruptions, both globally and in the NHET. The sensitivity of volcanic forcing to varying eruption source parameters and model dependency is discussed, emphasizing the need for future multi-model studies to consider the influence of initial conditions and eruption source parameters on volcanic forcing and subsequent impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The early 19th century was the coldest period over the past 500 years, when strong tropical volcanic events and a solar minimum coincided. The 1809 unidentified eruption and the 1815 Tambora eruption happened consecutively during the Dalton minimum of solar irradiance; however, the relative role of the two forcing (volcano and solar) agents is still unclear. In this study, we examine the effects from combinations of one volcanic with two different solar forcing reconstructions (SATIRE and PMOD) suggested in the protocol for the past1000 experiment of the Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project – Phase 4 (PMIP4) by simulating the early 19th century climate. From 20-member ensemble simulations with the Max Planck Institute Earth System Model (MPI-ESM1.2-LR), we find that the volcano- and solar-induced surface cooling is in general additive, regardless of combining or separating the forcing agents. The two solar reconstructions (SATIRE and PMOD) contribute on average ~0.05 K/month and ~0.15 K/month surface air cooling, respectively, indicating a limited solar contribution to the early 19th century cold period. The volcanic events provide the main cooling contributions, inducing a surface cooling peak of ~0.82 K for the 1809 event and ~1.35 K for Tambora. After the Tambora eruption, the cooling in most regions reduces largely within 5 years when a global cooling of ~0.34 K is reached, along with the reduction of volcanic forcing. In the northern extratropical oceans, the cooling reduces only slowly with a constant rate until 1830, which is related to the reduction of seasonality and the increased Arctic sea-ice extent. Also, the albedo feedback of Arctic sea ice is found to be the main contributor to the Arctic amplification of the cooling signal. Several non-additive responses to solar and volcanic forcing happen on regional scales. In the atmosphere, the polar vortex tends to strengthen when combining both volcano and solar forcing, even though the two forcing agents separately induce opposite responses. In the ocean, when combining the two forcings, additional surface cold water propagates to the northern extra-tropics from the additional solar cooling in the tropics, which results in regional cooling along the propagation. Overall, this study not only quantifies the surface responses from combinations of volcano and solar forcing, but also highlights the components that cannot be simply added from the responses of the individual forcing agents, indicating that a relatively small forcing agent (such as solar in early 19th century) can impact the response from the large forcing (such as the Tambora eruption) when considering regional climates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The early 19th century was the coldest period over the past 500 years, when strong tropical volcanic events and a solar minimum coincided. The 1809 unidentified eruption and the 1815 Tambora eruption happened consecutively during the Dalton minimum of solar irradiance; however, the relative role of the two forcing (volcano and solar) agents is still unclear. In this study, we examine the effects from combinations of one volcanic with two different solar forcing reconstructions (SATIRE and PMOD) suggested in the protocol for the past1000 experiment of the Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project - Phase 4 (PMIP4) by simulating the early 19th century climate. From 20-member ensemble simulations with the Max Planck Institute Earth System Model (MPI-ESM1.2-LR), we find that the volcano- and solar-induced surface cooling is in general additive, regardless of combining or separating the forcing agents. The two solar reconstructions (SATIRE and PMOD) contribute on average ~0.05 K/month and ~0.15 K/month surface air cooling, respectively, indicating a limited solar contribution to the early 19th century cold period. The volcanic events provide the main cooling contributions, inducing a surface cooling peak of ~0.82 K for the 1809 event and ~1.35 K for Tambora. After the Tambora eruption, the cooling in most regions reduces largely within 5 years when a global cooling of ~0.34 K is reached, along with the reduction of volcanic forcing. In the northern extratropical oceans, the cooling reduces only slowly with a constant rate until 1830, which is related to the reduction of seasonality and the increased Arctic sea-ice extent. Also, the albedo feedback of Arctic sea ice is found to be the main contributor to the Arctic amplification of the cooling signal. Several non-additive responses to solar and volcanic forcing happen on regional scales. In the atmosphere, the polar vortex tends to strengthen when combining both volcano and solar forcing, even though the two forcing agents separately induce opposite responses. In the ocean, when combining the two forcings, additional surface cold water propagates to the northern extra-tropics from the additional solar cooling in the tropics, which results in regional cooling along the propagation. Overall, this study not only quantifies the surface responses from combinations of volcano and solar forcing, but also highlights the components that cannot be simply added from the responses of the individual forcing agents, indicating that a relatively small forcing agent (such as solar in early 19th century) can impact the response from the large forcing (such as the Tambora eruption) when considering regional climates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Northern Hemisphere, the mid-6th century was one of the coldest periods of the last 2000 years, as indicated by both proxy records and Earth System Model (ESM) simulations. This cold period was initiated by volcanic eruptions in 536 CE and 540 CE. Evidence from historical sources, archaeological findings and proxy records suggests that the extent and severity of this volcanic induced cooling was spatially heterogeneous, and that the effect on society resulted in adaptation and resilience at some locations, whereas social crisis has been indicated at others. Here, we study the effect of the volcanic double event in 536 CE and 540 CE on the climate and society in Scandinavia with a special focus on Southern Norway. Using an ensemble of Max Planck Institute ESM transient simulations for 521-680 CE, the temperature, precipitation and atmospheric circulation patterns are studied. The simulated cooling magnitude is then used as input for the growing degree day (GDD) model set-up for Southern Norway. This GDD model indicates the possible effects on agriculture for three different study areas in Southern Norway, representative of typical meteorological and landscape conditions. Pollen from bogs and archaeological records inside the study area are then analysed at high resolution (1-3 cm sample intervals) to give insights into the validity of the GDD model set-up with regard to the volcanic climate impact on the regional scale, and to link the different types of data sets. After the 536/540 CE double event, a maximum surface air cooling of up to 3.5 °C during the mean growing season is simulated regionally in Southern Norway. With a worst-case scenario cooling of 3 °C, the GDD model indicates crop failures were likely in our northernmost and western study areas, while crops were more likely to mature in the southeastern study area. These results are in agreement with the pollen records from the respective areas. During the sixth century, excavations show an abandonment of farms, severe social impact but also a continuation of occupation or a mix of those. In addition, archaeological findings from one of the excavation sites suggest wetter conditions for the mid sixth century in Scandinavia, as simulated by individual ensemble members. Finally, we discuss the likely climate and societal impacts of the 536/540 CE volcanic double event by synthesising the new and available data sets for the whole Scandinavia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]