Accessible Climate and Impact Model Output for Studying the Human and Environmental Impacts of Nuclear Conflict

Cheryl Shannon Harrison , William Faulkner, Joshua Coupe, E. Kesse Asante, Charles Bardeen, Victoria Garza, Jonas Jägermeyr, Nicole S. Lovenduski, Alan Robock, Karen Rojas, Kim Scherrer, Owen Brian Toon, Lili Xia

Nuclear winter refers to the suite of physical and biological consequences that may follow nuclear conflict, particularly the cooling and darkening of Earth’s surface due to black carbon soot in the upper atmosphere. While the associated changes in temperature, precipitation, and food system productivity have been the subject of climate modeling for decades, the outputs of models used to project these effects are stored in large files with formats unfamiliar to the broader research community. This paper introduces a standardized, user-friendly repository of simulated nuclear conflict climate impact data designed to lower barriers for non-specialist researchers. The data product provides simplified, spreadsheet-ready datasets derived from established Earth System Model simulations and includes variables relevant to human and environmental impacts: temperature, precipitation, ultraviolet radiation, crop yields, fish catch, and sea ice thickness for a range of nuclear conflict scenarios. This repository aims to facilitate interdisciplinary research into the long-term consequences of nuclear detonations to support policy development.