Global perturbation of stratospheric water and aerosol burden by Hunga eruption

• DOI: 10.1038/s43247-022-00652-x
• Publication Date: 2022-12-14T05:02:57Z
• Authors: Sergey Khaykin; Aurelien Podglajen; Felix Ploeger; Jens-Uwe Grooß; Florent Tence; Slimane Bekki; Konstantin Khlope...; Kristopher Bedka; Landon Rieger; Alexandre Baron; Sophie Godin-Beek...; Bernard Legras; Pasquale Sellitto; Tetsu Sakai; John Barnes; Osamu Uchino; Isamu Morino; Tomohiro Nagai; Robin Wing; Gerd Baumgarten; Michael Gerding; Valentin Duflot; Guillaume Payen; Julien Jumelet; Richard Querel; Ben Liley; Adam Bourassa; Benjamin Clouser; Artem Feofilov; Alain Hauchecorne; François Ravetta
• Keywords: Vulcanian 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 58 km. From combination various types satellite and ground-based observations supported by transport modeling, we show evidence for an unprecedented increase global stratospheric water mass 13% relative climatological levels, 5-fold aerosol load, highest last three decades. Owing extreme injection altitude, plume circumnavigated Earth only 1 week dispersed nearly pole-to-pole months. unique nature magnitude perturbation ranks it among most remarkable climatic events modern observation era, range potential long-lasting repercussions composition climate.