Abstract: Sulfate aerosols from large explosive volcanic eruptions cool the Earth' surface by reflecting and scattering incoming solar radiation. Understanding the climatic impact of past volcanism is vital to evaluate human impacts on climate through greenhouse emissions and land surface modification. Accurate assessment of such contributions depends on the use of robust forcing indices. This paper provides a brief overview of the climatic impacts of volcanic eruptions, and reviews the progress over the past three decades on polar ice-core volcanic records and on volcanic forcing index reconstruction suing these ice cores. This is followed by an in-depth review of the advantages, as well as the limitations and challenges, of using multiple ice cores from polar regions for reconstructing the volcanic history of the late Holocene. Advances in analytical tools and the methodology of volcanic signal extraction, as well as the volcanic forcing index based on multiple bipolar ice cores are further discussed. Finally, perspectives are offered on how future polar ice-core research could improve the development of a volcanic index suitable for state-of-the-art climate models.

Key words: polar ice cores, volcanic activities, index reconstruction, climatic impact