Global climatic consequences of nuclear war: Simulations with three dimensional models

The pollution of the atmosphere by massive amounts of smoke and dust following a large scale nuclear exchange could greatly decrease sunlight reaching the earth's surface in Northern Hemisphere midlatitudes, and perhaps globally. Simulations with two different three-dimensional global climate models show subfreezing land surface temperatures underlying the hypothesized dense Northern Hemisphere smoke cloud, particularly in continental interiors. The accompanying profound changes in atmospheric circulation would tend to transport the smoke upwards and towards the tropics and Southern Hemisphere, possibly bringing those areas into the severe climatic disruption spawned by a Northern Hemisphere war. Refs.