Ozone depletion-induced climate change following a 50 pc supernova

TL;DR

This study investigates how a supernova at 50 parsecs could affect Earth's climate by altering atmospheric ozone, revealing small global temperature changes but significant regional impacts on circulation and precipitation.

Contribution

It models the potential regional climate effects of supernova-induced ozone depletion using the PlaSim climate model with prescribed ozone profiles.

Findings

Small changes in global surface temperature.

Larger localized climate and circulation impacts.

Potential regional effects on precipitation patterns.

Abstract

Ozone in Earth's atmosphere is known to have a radiative forcing effect on climate. Motivated by geochemical evidence for one or more nearby supernovae about 2.6 million years ago, we have investigated the question of whether a supernova at about 50 pc could cause a change in Earth's climate through its impact on atmospheric ozone concentrations. We used the "Planet Simulator" (PlaSim) intermediate-complexity climate model with prescribed ozone profiles taken from existing atmospheric chemistry modeling. We found that the effect on globally averaged surface temperature is small, but localized changes are larger and differences in atmospheric circulation and precipitation patterns could have regional impacts.