pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Impact of the Hunga Tonga volcanic eruption on stratospheric composition - PubMed

  • ️Sun Jan 01 2023

Impact of the Hunga Tonga volcanic eruption on stratospheric composition

David M Wilmouth et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2023.

Abstract

The explosive eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai (HTHH) volcano on 15 January 2022 injected more water vapor into the stratosphere and to higher altitudes than ever observed in the satellite era. Here, the evolution of the stratospherically injected water vapor is examined as a function of latitude, altitude, and time in the year following the eruption (February to December 2022), and perturbations to stratospheric chemical composition resulting from the increased sulfate aerosols and water vapor are identified and analyzed. The average calculated mass distribution of elevated water vapor between hemispheres is approximately 78% Southern Hemisphere (SH) and 22% Northern Hemisphere in 2022. Significant changes in stratospheric composition following the HTHH eruption are identified using observations from the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder satellite instrument. The dominant features in the monthly mean vertical profiles averaged over 15° latitude ranges are decreases in O3 (-14%) and HCl (-22%) at SH midlatitudes and increases in ClO (>100%) and HNO3 (43%) in the tropics, with peak pressure-level perturbations listed. Anomalies in column ozone from 1.2-100 hPa due to the HTHH eruption include widespread O3 reductions in SH midlatitudes and O3 increases in the tropics, with peak anomalies in 15° latitude-binned, monthly averages of approximately -7% and +5%, respectively, occurring in austral spring. Using a 3-dimensional chemistry-climate-aerosol model and observational tracer correlations, changes in stratospheric composition are found to be due to both dynamical and chemical factors.

Keywords: Hunga Tonga; ozone; stratosphere; volcanic eruption; water vapor.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.

Water vapor mixing ratios in excess of 7 ppm, as measured by MLS for selected months from February to December 2022. The pressure level shown is 26 hPa, where the peak anomaly in the vertical profile of H2O vapor occurred following the HTHH volcanic eruption (20.54° S, 175.38° W) in January 2022. Longitude is on the x axis and latitude is on the y axis, both in degrees. The mixing ratio is indicated by the color bar on the right side of each panel; note the changes in scaling.

Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.

Monthly mean vertical profiles of MLS water vapor mixing ratio and water vapor anomalies for the latitude ranges 0 to 30° S (A–D), 0 to 30° N (E–H), 30 to 60° S (I–L), 60 to 82° S (M–P), across all longitudes. The MLS pressure levels are indicated by circles. Data for each of the 17 y from 2005 to 2021 are shown in gray, the 17-y mean is in black, lines representing ± 2 SDs (2σ) from the 17-y mean are shown in blue, data points from 2022 that fall inside the 2σ lines are plotted in yellow, and data from 2022 outside the 2σ lines are in red. The leftmost column in each row displays water vapor mixing ratio for the month of February, and all other panels display monthly difference (δ) plots to highlight the enhancements in April, September, and December, calculated by subtracting the 17-y monthly mean water vapor mixing ratios. Note that the x-axis scaling is different in the Top row from the Lower rows.

Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.

Percentage of water vapor mass enhancement in the stratosphere by month in 2022 from the HTHH volcanic eruption for the latitude ranges: 0 to 82° N (blue), 0 to 30° S (red), and 30 to 82° S (yellow). Calculated percentages are based on the water vapor mass data in Table 1.

Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.

Monthly mean vertical profiles (A–F) and anomalies (G–L) for April 2022 of MLS water vapor, temperature, chlorine monoxide, ozone, nitric acid, and hydrogen chloride. The Upper panels display April data for each of the 17 y from 2005 to 2021 in gray, the 17-y mean in black, and data from 2022 in red. The Lower panels display difference (δ) plots to highlight the changes, calculated by subtracting the 17-y mean values. Variables are shown for all longitudes and for the latitude range 0 to 30° S, except ozone is shown for 0 to 45° S because the observed ozone anomaly (red line, panel J) is essentially identical for both latitude ranges from 15 to 50 hPa, while the precision of the ozone data is better in the previous 17 y for the broader latitude range. The blue lines in the lower panels represent ± 2 SDs (2σ) from the 17-y mean.

Fig. 5.
Fig. 5.

Modeled zonal mean, monthly average vertical anomalies (A–J) for 0 to 30° S (as in Fig. 4) using the SOCOL-AERv2 chemistry–climate–aerosol model initiated with 150 Tg H2O and 0.41 Tg SO2 to simulate the impact of the HTHH volcanic eruption. The anomalies are calculated as the difference between a 30-member model ensemble for 2022 with the HTHH eruption and an ensemble excluding the eruption.

Fig. 6.
Fig. 6.

Peak anomalies in monthly mean vertical profiles of MLS O3, ClO, HCl, and HNO3 (panels A–D, respectively) for February to December 2022. Tones of blue indicate percent decrease in mixing ratio and tones of red indicate percent increase in mixing ratio for the latitude range and month shown for each variable. The points are zonal mean, monthly averages over 15° latitude bins between 60° S to 60° N, with colored circles representing the maximum outlier in mixing ratio converted to percentage over the pressure range 5 to 60 hPa, the region of maximum water vapor enhancement from HTHH. Only data points that satisfy the four criteria listed in the text are shown.

Fig. 7.
Fig. 7.

Scatter plots of MLS monthly mean anomalies of HCl and N2O (A) and O3 and N2O (B) at 30 to 45° S across all longitudes for the months of June to December. Anomalies are calculated relative to the 16-y (2005 to 2019 and 2021) MLS mean vertical profile for each month. Panel A includes data at the 21.5, 31.6, and 46.4 hPa pressure levels, and Panel B displays data at the 31.6 and 46.4 hPa levels. Data for 2005 to 2019 are in blue, 2020 points are in green, 2021 points are in yellow, and 2022 data are in red. Perturbations in 2020 are due to the ANY wildfires. The black lines represent ± 2 SDs (2σ) from the mean of the data in blue and yellow.

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Wright C. J., et al. , Surface-to-space atmospheric waves from Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption. Nature 609, 741–746 (2022). - PMC - PubMed
    1. Millán L., et al. , The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai hydration of the stratosphere. Geophys. Res. Lett. 49, e2022GL099381 (2022). - PMC - PubMed
    1. Vömel H., Evan S., Tully M., Water vapor injection into the stratosphere by Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai. Science 377, 1444–1447 (2022). - PubMed
    1. Carr J. L., Horváth Á., Wu D. L., Friberg M. D., Stereo plume height and motion retrievals for the record-setting Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai eruption of 15 January 2022. Geophys. Res. Lett. 49, e2022GL098131 (2022).
    1. Proud S. R., Prata A. T., Schmauß S., The January 2022 eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano reached the mesosphere. Science 378, 554–557 (2022). - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources