The Hunga Tonga 2022 Eruption and Its Impact on the Atmosphere, Climate, and the Environment

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Climatology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2022) | Viewed by 17450

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Jülich Supercomputing Centre, Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany
Interests: atmospheric science; computational science; Earth system modeling; high performance computing
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The great eruptions of the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai volcano in the SW Pacific Ocean, 14–15 January 2022, bears the hallmarks of an epic explosive volcanic event, which already has and will, in some way, affect the atmosphere, world climate, and various aspects of the terrestrial and marine environments.

The Editorial Board of Atmosphere has decided to publish a Special Issue (SI) entitled: “The Hunga Tonga 2022 Eruption and Its Impact on the Atmosphere, Climate, and Environment”. It is my pleasure to inform you that I will be serving as Guest Editor for this SI.

The focus of the issue will be describing and discussing important aspects related to how this high-energy and complex volcanic event has affected and continues to affect the atmosphere, climate, ocean, and terrestrial environments, both in the immediate area and globally.

I am asking you as a dedicated specialist to consider contributing within your field of knowledge to unravel some of the processes and impacts of this volcanic event. Please reply to me within a couple of weeks suggesting a title and 4–5 keywords if you think you can contribute to this SI. The deadline for producing your manuscript is 21 September 2022.

Here are some guiding keywords we would like to cover: submarine explosion triggers, supercritical water, phreatomagmatic processes, plume velocity and composition, gas compositions, cloud generation, lightning frequency and intensity, supersonic shockwaves, infrasound, atmospheric gravity waves, tsunami generation, surges, ash fall, accretion of ash, impacts on marine biota including corals, pyroclastic flow/processes/water interaction, stratospheric particle density and migration, heat generation, water and air turbidity, silicosis in animals and humans, erosion, bathymetry and coastal alterations, chlorine and bromine emission, and stratospheric ozone depletion.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Dr. Lars Hoffmann
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • plume characteristics
  • shockwaves
  • atmospheric gravity waves
  • explosion triggers
  • tsunamis and surges
  • turbidite and pyroclastic flow
  • stratospheric interaction
  • emission of volcanic gases
  • emission of chlorine gas and ozone
  • ash fall and water–ash interaction
  • impact of volcanic ash on humans and animals
  • cloud generation

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 612 KiB  
Article
Disturbances of Doppler Frequency Shift of Ionospheric Signal and of Telluric Current Caused by Atmospheric Waves from Explosive Eruption of Hunga Tonga Volcano on January 15, 2022
by Nazyf Salikhov, Alexander Shepetov, Galina Pak, Vladimir Saveliev, Serik Nurakynov, Vladimir Ryabov and Valery Zhukov
Atmosphere 2023, 14(2), 245; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos14020245 - 26 Jan 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1786
Abstract
After the explosive eruption of the Hunga Tonga volcano on 15 January 2022, disturbances were observed at a distance of about 12,000 km in Northern Tien Shan and regarded variations in the atmospheric pressure, in telluric current, and in the Doppler frequency shift [...] Read more.
After the explosive eruption of the Hunga Tonga volcano on 15 January 2022, disturbances were observed at a distance of about 12,000 km in Northern Tien Shan and regarded variations in the atmospheric pressure, in telluric current, and in the Doppler frequency shift of ionospheric signal. At 16:00:55 UTC, a pulse of atmospheric pressure was detected there, with peak amplitude of 1.3 hPa and propagation speed of 0.3056 km/s, equal to the velocity of Lamb waves. In the variations in the Doppler frequency shift, disturbances of two types were registered on the 3212 km and 2969 km long inclined radio paths, one of which arose as a response to the passage of a Lamb wave (0.3059 km/s) through the reflection point of the radio wave and another as reaction to an acoustic-gravity wave (0.2602 km/s). Two successive perturbations were also detected in the records of telluric current at the arrival times of the Lamb and acoustic-gravity waves at the registration point. According to the parameters of the Lamb wave, the energy transfer into the atmosphere upon the explosion of the Hunga Tonga volcano was roughly estimated to be 2000 Mt of TNT equivalent. Full article
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14 pages, 3352 KiB  
Article
Extreme Heights of 15 January 2022 Tonga Volcanic Plume and Its Initial Evolution Inferred from COSMIC-2 RO Measurements
by Saginela Ravindra Babu and Neng-Huei Lin
Atmosphere 2023, 14(1), 121; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos14010121 - 5 Jan 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2295
Abstract
The Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai underwater volcano (20.57° S, 175.38° W) violently erupted on 15 January 2022. The volcanic cloud’s top height and initial evolution are delineated by using the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC)-2 radio occultation (RO) measurements. The [...] Read more.
The Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai underwater volcano (20.57° S, 175.38° W) violently erupted on 15 January 2022. The volcanic cloud’s top height and initial evolution are delineated by using the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC)-2 radio occultation (RO) measurements. The bending angle (BA) anomaly over the Tonga volcanic plume (within 200 km of the eruption center) at 5:17 UTC on 15 January showed a prominent peak at higher stratospheric heights. The top of the BA anomaly revealed that negative to positive change occurred at ~38 km, indicating the first height where the RO line-of-sight encountered the volcanic plume. The BA anomaly further revealed an increase of ~50% at ~36.1 km, and confirmed that the volcanic plume reached above ~36 km. Furthermore, the evolution of BA perturbations within 24 h after the initial explosion is also discussed herein. From collocated RO profiles with the volcanic plume, we can find a clear descent of the peak altitude of the BA perturbation from ~36.1 km to ~29 km within 24 h after the initial eruption. The results from this study will provide some insights into advancing our understanding of volcanic cloud dynamics and their implementation in volcanic plume modeling. Full article
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23 pages, 14551 KiB  
Article
Investigations on the Global Spread of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai Volcanic Eruption Using Space-Based Observations and Lagrangian Transport Simulations
by Manoj Kumar Mishra, Lars Hoffmann and Pradeep Kumar Thapliyal
Atmosphere 2022, 13(12), 2055; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13122055 - 8 Dec 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2884
Abstract
On 15 January 2022, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai (HTHH) (175.38° W, 20.54° S) volcano erupted explosively. It is considered the most explosive volcanic eruption during the past 140 years. The HTHH volcanic eruption caused intense ripples, Lamb waves, and gravity waves in the [...] Read more.
On 15 January 2022, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai (HTHH) (175.38° W, 20.54° S) volcano erupted explosively. It is considered the most explosive volcanic eruption during the past 140 years. The HTHH volcanic eruption caused intense ripples, Lamb waves, and gravity waves in the atmosphere which encircled the globe several times, as reported by different studies. In this study, using OMI, SAGE-III/ISS, and CALIPSO satellite observations, we investigated the spread of the volcanic SO2 cloud due to the HTHH eruption and subsequent formation of sulfuric acid clouds in the stratosphere. It took about 19–21 days for the stratospheric SO2 injections of the HTHH to encircle the globe longitudinally due to a dominant westward jet with wind speeds of ~2500 km/day, and it slowly dispersed over the whole globe within several months due to poleward spread. The formation of sulfuric acid clouds intensified after about a month, causing the more frequent occurrence of high aerosol optical depth elevated layers in the stratosphere at an altitude of about 20–26 km. This study deals with the dynamics of volcanic plume spread in the stratosphere, knowledge of which is essential in estimating the accurate radiative effects caused by perturbations in the earth–atmosphere system due to a volcanic eruption. In addition, this knowledge provides important input for studies related to the geo-engineering of the earth’s atmosphere by injecting particulates and gases into the stratosphere. Full article
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9 pages, 2593 KiB  
Article
Large Amounts of Water Vapor Were Injected into the Stratosphere by the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai Volcano Eruption
by Jingyuan Xu, Dan Li, Zhixuan Bai, Mengchu Tao and Jianchun Bian
Atmosphere 2022, 13(6), 912; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos13060912 - 4 Jun 2022
Cited by 30 | Viewed by 8008
Abstract
The Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai (Tonga) injected only small amount of SO2 into the stratosphere, while our analyses of the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) measurements show that a massive amount of water vapor was directly injected into the stratosphere by the Tonga eruption, [...] Read more.
The Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai (Tonga) injected only small amount of SO2 into the stratosphere, while our analyses of the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) measurements show that a massive amount of water vapor was directly injected into the stratosphere by the Tonga eruption, which is probably due to its submarine volcanic activity. The Tonga eruption injected a total amount of 139 ± 8 Tg of water vapor into the stratosphere and resulted in an increase of 8.9 ± 0.5% in the global stratospheric water vapor. Analyses also show that the uppermost altitude impacted by Tonga reached the 1 hPa level (~47.6 km). Additionally, the maximum hydration region for increased water vapor is at 38–17 hPa (~22.2–27 km), where the water vapor mixing ratio increased by 6–8 ppmv during the three months after the Tonga eruption. The enhanced stratospheric water vapor has great potential to influence the global radiation budget as well as ozone loss. Full article
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