Global climatic effects of atmospheric dust from an asteroid or comet impact on Earth

Abstract Impacts of comets and small ( ∼ 10 km) asteroids with Earth—frequent events over geologic time—would generate atmospheric dust in amounts orders of magnitude greater than historically large volcanic explosions. Three-dimensional atmospheric model simulations show that climatic effects of such impacts would include drastic cooling of land surfaces due to interception of sunlight by high-altitude dust. Unlike earlier one-dimensional calculations, the three-dimensional results indicate that large areas of the planet would escape freezing. They also suggest catastrophic changes in the hydrological cycle.

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