Climatic Consequences of Nuclear Conflict

Robock, Alan, Lili Xia, and Zia Mian, 2026: Willful ignorance of the global impact of nuclear war, Physics Today, 79, No. 8, 30-37, doi:10.1063/pt.70241b41ab.    Web version    PDF file

Harrison, Cheryl, William Faulkner, Joshua Coupe, E. Kesse Asante, Charles Bardeen, Victoria Garza, Ryan Heneghan, Jonas Jägermeyr, Nicole S. Lovenduski, Alan Robock, Karen Rojas, Kim Scherrer, O. Brian Toon, and Lili Xia, 2026: Accessible climate and impact model output for studying the human and environmental impacts of nuclear conflict, Geoscience Data Journal, 13, no. 3:e70076, doi:10.1002/gdj3.70076.   PDF file

Toon, Owen Brian, and Alan Robock, 2025: Earth in Flames: How an Asteroid Killed the Dinosaurs, and How We Can Avoid a Similar Fate From Nuclear Winter, Oxford University Press, 280 pp., doi:10.1093/9780197799734.003.0012, ISBN: 9780197799703. 

Robock, Alan, Lili Xia, Cheryl S. Harrison, Joshua Coupe, Owen B. Toon, and Charles G. Bardeen, 2023: Opinion: How nuclear winter has saved the world, so far. Atm. Chem. Phys., 23, 6691-6701, doi:10.5194/acp-23-6691-2023.   PDF file

Coupe, Joshua, Cheryl Harrison, Alan Robock, Alice DuVivier, Elizabeth Maroon, Nicole S. Lovenduski, Scott Bachman, Laura Landrum, and Charles Bardeen, 2023: Sudden reduction of Antarctic sea ice despite cooling after nuclear war. J. Geophys. Res. Oceans, 128, e2022JC018774, doi:10.1029/2022JC018774.  PDF file

Xia, Lili, Alan Robock, Kim Scherrer, Cheryl S. Harrison, Benjamin Leon Bodirsky, Isabelle Weindl, Jonas Jägermeyr, Charles G. Bardeen, Owen B. Toon, and Ryan Heneghan, 2022: Global food insecurity and famine from reduced crop, marine fishery and livestock production due to climate disruption from nuclear war soot injection. Nature Food, 3, 586-596, doi:10.1038/s43016-022-00573-0.  PDF file

Harrison, Cheryl S., Tyler Rohr, Alice DuVivier, Elizabeth A. Maroon, Scott Bachman, Charles G. Bardeen, Joshua Coupe, Victoria Garza, Ryan Heneghan, Nicole S. Lovenduski, Philipp Neubauer, Victor Rangel, Alan Robock, Kim Scherrer, Samantha Stevenson, and Owen B. Toon, 2022: A new ocean state after nuclear war. AGU Advances, 3, e2021AV000610, doi:10.1029/2021AV000610.    PDF file

Hochman, Gal, Hainan Zhang, Lili Xia, Alan Robock, Saketh Aleti, Dominique Y. van der Mensbrugghe, and Jonas Jägermeyr, 2022: Economic incentives modify agricultural impacts of nuclear war. Env. Res. Lett., 17, 054003, doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ac61c7.    PDF file

Yu, Pengfei, Sean M. Davis, Owen B. Toon, Robert W. Portmann, Charles G. Bardeen, John E. Barnes, Hagen Telg, Christopher Maloney, Karen H. Rosenlof, 2021: Persistent stratospheric warming due to 2019-20 Australian wildfire smoke, Geophys. Res. Lett., 48, e2021GL092609, doi:10.1029/2021GL092609.   PDF file

Bardeen, Charles G., Douglas E. Kinnison, Owen B. Toon, Michael J. Mills, Francis Vitt, Lili Xia, Jonas Jägermeyr, Nicole S. Lovenduski, Kim J. N. Scherrer, Margot Clyne, and Alan Robock, 2021: Extreme ozone loss following nuclear war resulting in enhanced surface ultraviolet radiation. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 126, e2021JD035079, doi:10.1029/2021JD035079.   PDF file

Redfern, S., Lundquist, J. K., Toon, O. B., Muñoz-Esparza, D., Bardeen, C. G., & Kosović, B, 2021: Upper troposphere smoke injection from large areal fires. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 126, e2020JD034332, doi:10.1029/2020JD034332.   PDF file

Coupe, Joshua, and Alan Robock, 2021: The influence of stratospheric soot and sulfate aerosols on the Northern Hemisphere wintertime atmospheric circulation. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 126, e2020JD034513, doi:10.1029/2020JD034513.   PDF file

Coupe, Joshua, Samantha Stevenson, Nicole S. Lovenduski, Tyler Rohr, Cheryl S. Harrison, Alan Robock, Holly Olivarez, Charles G. Bardeen, and Owen B. Toon, 2021: Nuclear Niño response observed in simulations of nuclear war scenarios. Communications Earth & Environment, 2, 18, doi:10.1038/s43247-020-00088-1.     PDF file

Frishcosy, Christopher Cole, Yao Wang, and Yunping Xi, 2021: A novel approach to estimate fuel energy from urban areas. Energy and Buildings, 231, 110609, doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2020.110609.  PDF file

Scherrer, Kim J. N., Cheryl S. Harrison, Ryan F. Heneghan, Eric Galbraith, Charles G. Bardeen, Joshua Coupe, Jonas Jägermeyr, Nicole S. Lovenduski, August Luna, Alan Robock, Jessica Stevens, Samantha Stevenson, Owen B. Toon, and Lili Xia, 2020: Marine wild-capture fisheries after nuclear war.  Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 117(47), 29,748-29,758, doi:10.1073/pnas.2008256117.   PDF file

Jägermeyr, Jonas, Alan Robock, Joshua Elliott, Christoph Müller, Lili Xia, Nikolay Khabarov, Christian Folberth, Erwin Schmid, Wenfeng Liu, Florian Zabel, Sam S. Rabin, Michael J. Puma, Alison C. Heslin, James Franke, Ian Foster, Senthold Asseng, Charles G. Bardeen, Owen B. Toon, and Cynthia Rosenzweig, 2020: A regional nuclear conflict would compromise global food security. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 117, 7071-7081, doi:10.1073/pnas.1919049117.    PDF file

Lovenduski, Nicole S., Cheryl S. Harrison, Holly Olivarez, Charles G. Bardeen, Owen B. Toon, Joshua Coupe, Alan Robock, Tyler Rohr, and Samantha Stevenson, 2020: The potential impact of nuclear conflict on ocean acidification. Geophys. Res. Lett., doi: 10.1029/2019GL086246.    PDF file

Robock, Alan, Owen B. Toon, Charles G. Bardeen, Lili Xia, Hans Kristensen, Matthew McKinzie, R. J. Peterson, Cheryl Harrison, Nicole S. Lovenduski, and Richard P. Turco, 2019: How an India-Pakistan nuclear war could start–and have global consequences. Bull. Atomic Scientists, 75:6, 273-279, doi:10.1080/00963402.2019.1680049.  PDF file

Robock, Alan, 2010: New START, Eyjafjallajökull, and Nuclear Winter. Eos, 91 (47), 444-445, doi:10.1029/2010ES003201.   PDF file

Mills, Michael J., Owen B. Toon, Richard P. Turco, Douglas E. Kinnison, and Rolando R. Garcia, 2008:  Massive global ozone loss predicted following regional nuclear conflict.  Proc. National Acad. Sci., 105, 5307–5312.   PDF file

Toon, Owen B., Alan Robock, and Richard P. Turco, 2008:  Environmental consequences of nuclear war.  Physics Today, 61, No. 12, 37-42.  PDF file

Robock, Alan, 2008:  Time to bury a dangerous legacy – part II: Climatic catastrophe would follow regional nuclear conflict.  YaleGlobal Online

Robock, Alan, 2008:  Nuclear winter. In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Cutler J. Cleveland, Ed. (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth July 21, 2008; Last revised July 22, 2008].  http://www.eoearth.org/article/Nuclear_winter

Robock, Alan, 2007:  Climate effects of a regional nuclear conflict. IPRC Climate, 7, no. 1, 16-18.   PDF file

Robock, Alan, Luke Oman, Georgiy L. Stenchikov, Owen B. Toon, Charles Bardeen, and Richard P. Turco, 2007a:  Climatic consequences of regional nuclear conflicts.  Atm. Chem. Phys., 7, 2003-2012.  PDF file   Supplement caption  Supplement   This paper supersedes the previous discussion version.  Russian translation (по русский)  (See below for most important figures.)

Robock, Alan, Luke Oman, and Georgiy L. Stenchikov, 2007b:  Nuclear winter revisited with a modern climate model and current nuclear arsenals: Still catastrophic consequences.  J. Geophys. Res., 112, D13107, doi:2006JD008235.  PDF file  Russian translation (по русский)  Featured as a Research Highlight in Nature.