Numerical modeling of nuclear winter: Cooling of the upper ocean and climatic relaxation

The possibility of large-scale destructive effects on the environment and climate, resulting from a global nuclear conflict, has long been underestimated. New data that became available in the early 1980's aroused interest in the problem of the global consequences of nuclear war. Crutzen and Birks first estimated the possible pollution of the atmosphere by a soot aerosol resulting from fires produced by a nuclear exchange. Calculations of the response of the climatic system based on models of various types indicated that the increased turbidity of the atmosphere could cause a sharp drop in the air temperature above the continents of the Northern Hemisphere over a long period. Renewed studies and the results of an international project confirm the potential danger of these effects.