The SSiRC International Team focuses on addressing key science challenges regarding the impact of stratospheric sulfur and related aerosol on climate in the 21st century. These challenges include the need to prepare measurement and climate model strategies and develop instrumentation to assess the impact of a future major volcanic eruption on climate and society in a timely manner. SSiRC addresses these challenges following a multipronged approach in which the team will mainly focus on four themes:
•   Improving the historical observation-based stratospheric aerosol data set and including an estimate of the total stratospheric sulfur burden.
•    Investigating the feedback between stratospheric aerosol and climate by developing tools to improve interactive aerosol representation in climate models and investigating how a changing climate affects non-volcanic stratospheric sulfur sources and their transport.
•    Assessing the state of knowledge of aerosol and aerosol precursor transport and microphysical processes in the UT/LS as currently represented in climate models
•    Assessing the current ability to rapidly determine likely climate impacts of a major volcanic eruption including determining what we need to do to be prepared for making crucial observations.