The Sectional Stratospheric Sulfate Aerosol module S3A-v1 within
the LMDZ general circulation model: Description and evaluation
against stratospheric aerosol observations
Abstract. Stratospheric aerosols play an important role in the climate system by affecting the Earth's radiative budget and the capabilities to simulate them interactively within global models are continuously improving. It is important to represent accurately both aerosol microphysical and atmospheric dynamical processes because together they affect the size distribution and the residence time of the aerosol particles in the stratosphere. The newly developed LMDZ-S3A model presented in this article uses a sectional approach for sulfate particles in the stratosphere and includes all the relevant microphysical processes, allowing full interaction between aerosol radiative effects and atmospheric dynamics. It reasonably reproduces aerosol observations in periods of low (background) and high (volcanic) stratospheric sulfate loading. Thus, it may serve as a tool to study the climate impacts of volcanic eruptions, as well as the deliberate anthropogenic injection of aerosols into the stratosphere, which has been proposed as a method of geoengineering to abate global warming.