EGU22-13601, updated on 09 Jan 2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-13601
EGU General Assembly 2022
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai hydration of the stratosphere

Luis Millán1, Lucien Froidevaux1, Gloria Manney2,3, Alyn Lambert1, Nathaniel Livesey1, Hugh Pumphrey4, William Read1, Michelle Santee1, Michael Schwartz1, Hui Su1, Frank Werner1, and Longtao Wu1
Luis Millán et al.
  • 1Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
  • 2Pasadena, California, USA 2 NorthWest Research Associates, Socorro, New Mexico, USA
  • 3New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, New Mexico, USA
  • 4School of GeoSciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai, a submarine volcano in the South Pacific, reached an eruption climax on 15 January 2022. The blast sent a plume of ash well into the stratosphere, triggered tsunami alerts across the world, and caused ionospheric disturbances. A few hours after the violent eruption, the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) measured enhanced values of water vapor at altitudes as high as 50 km - near the stratopause.
On the following days, as the plume dispersed, several MLS chemical species, including H2O and SO2, displayed elevated values, far exceeding any previous values in the 18-year record. In this presentation we discuss the validity of these measurements, the stratospheric evolution of the SO2 and H2O plumes, and, lastly, the implications of the large-scale hydration of the stratosphere by the eruption.

How to cite: Millán, L., Froidevaux, L., Manney, G., Lambert, A., Livesey, N., Pumphrey, H., Read, W., Santee, M., Schwartz, M., Su, H., Werner, F., and Wu, L.: The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai hydration of the stratosphere, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-13601, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-13601, 2022.

Displays

Display link