Global perturbation of stratospheric water and aerosol burden by Hunga eruption

Abstract

The eruption of the submarine Hunga volcano in January 2022 was associated with a powerful blast that injected volcanic material to altitudes up to 58 km. From a combination of various types of satellite and ground-based observations supported by transport modeling, we show evidence for an unprecedented increase in the global stratospheric water mass by 13% relative to climatological levels, and a 5-fold increase of stratospheric aerosol load, the highest in the last three decades. Owing to the extreme injection altitude, the volcanic plume circumnavigated the Earth in only 1 week and dispersed nearly pole-to-pole in three months. The unique nature and magnitude of the global stratospheric perturbation by the Hunga eruption ranks it among the most remarkable climatic events in the modern observation era, with a range of potential long-lasting repercussions for stratospheric composition and climate.

Tomographic Retrievals of Hunga Tonga‐Hunga Ha'apai Volcanic Aerosol

“…In addition to direct use of the extinction profiles, for this study we retrieve an estimate of the aerosol particle size by fitting the observed spectral dependence to that predicted by Mie scattering theory for a unimodal lognormal particle size distribution of hydrated sulfuric acid. This is a similar approach to that used in Khaykin et al (2022) where the dependence on particle composition is explored, and the retrieved particle size is shown to be consistent with fall speed estimates.…”

“…Geostationary satellite imagery shows the early plume in the uppermost levels of the stratosphere at a record‐breaking altitude of 58 km (Carr et al., 2022). The highest reaches of the plume, mostly composed of ice, sublimated rapidly in the warm temperatures of the upper stratosphere (Khaykin et al., 2022), with the main plume descending rapidly to be below 30 km since early February (Legras et al., 2022). A truly remarkable feature of this eruption is the large amount of water vapor in the plume, which satellite measurements show accounts for an increase of 10%–13% in the global stratospheric water vapor mass (Khaykin et al., 2022; Millán et al., 2022), although work using balloon sondes estimates a value closer to 5% (Vömel et al., 2022).…”

“…The highest reaches of the plume, mostly composed of ice, sublimated rapidly in the warm temperatures of the upper stratosphere (Khaykin et al., 2022), with the main plume descending rapidly to be below 30 km since early February (Legras et al., 2022). A truly remarkable feature of this eruption is the large amount of water vapor in the plume, which satellite measurements show accounts for an increase of 10%–13% in the global stratospheric water vapor mass (Khaykin et al., 2022; Millán et al., 2022), although work using balloon sondes estimates a value closer to 5% (Vömel et al., 2022). Due to the long lifetime and strong radiative effect of water vapor, it has been shown that this type of scenario can have a warming effect on the climate, offsetting the potential aerosol cooling (Joshi & Jones, 2009).…”

“…These authors speculate that the high aerosol levels are not because of underestimated SO 2 emission, but due to accelerated conversion of SO 2 to sulfate aerosol because of the enhanced water vapor levels from the eruption, which is a known sensitivity (LeGrande et al., 2016). Several of these recent studies have also reported substantial increases in particle size from background levels, again likely due to the elevated water vapor, analyzing both spectral and depolarization characteristics of remote sensing satellite observations (e.g., Khaykin et al., 2022; Taha et al., 2022) as well as in situ sampling of the plume with balloon‐borne instrumentation (Kloss et al., 2022).…”

Unexpected self-lofting and dynamical confinement of volcanic plumes: the Raikoke 2019 case

“…Strong volcanic eruptions such as the major eruption of mount Pinatubo in 1991 can inject vast amounts of volcanic material—mostly ash and SO 2 —high into the stratosphere which temporarily cools the climate 1 . Since the major eruption of Pinatubo, the most sizable moderate eruptions 2 – 4 in terms of their impact on stratospheric aerosol load are Sarychev 2009, Nabro 2011, Calbuco 2015, Raikoke 2019 and Hunga 2022.…”