Atmospheric effects of volcanic eruptions as seen by famous artists and depicted in their paintings

摘要

Paintings created by famous artists, representing sunsets throughout theperiod 1500–1900, provide proxy information on the aerosol optical depthfollowing major volcanic eruptions. This is supported by a statisticallysignificant correlation coefficient (0.8) between the measured red-to-greenratios of a few hundred paintings and the dust veil index. A radiativetransfer model was used to compile an independent time series of aerosoloptical depth at 550 nm corresponding to Northern Hemisphere middle latitudesduring the period 1500–1900. The estimated aerosol optical depths range from0.05 for background aerosol conditions, to about 0.6 following the Tamboraand Krakatau eruptions and cover a period practically outside of theinstrumentation era.