1. Microphysical Simulation of the 2022 Hunga Volcano Eruption Using a Sectional Aerosol Model.
- Author
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Li, Chenwei, Peng, Yifeng, Asher, Elizabeth, Baron, Alexandre A., Todt, Michael, Thornberry, Troy D., Evan, Stephanie, Brioude, Jerome, Smale, Penny, Querel, Richard, Rosenlof, Karen H., Zhou, Luxi, Xu, Jingyuan, Qie, Kai, Bian, Jianchun, Toon, Owen B., Zhu, Yunqian, and Yu, Pengfei
- Subjects
VOLCANIC eruptions ,WILDFIRES ,STRATOSPHERIC aerosols ,AEROSOLS ,SUBMARINE volcanoes ,ACID solutions ,WATER vapor ,WILDFIRE prevention - Abstract
Approximately 150 Tg of water vapor and 0.42 Tg of sulfur dioxide were injected directly into the stratosphere by the January 2022 Hunga volcanic eruption, which represents the largest water vapor injection in the satellite era. A comparison of numerical simulations to balloon‐borne and satellite observations of the water‐rich plume suggests that particle coagulation contributed to the Hunga aerosol's effective dry radius increase from 0.2 μm in February to around 0.4 μm in March. Our model suggests that the stratospheric aerosol effective radius is persistently perturbed for years by moderate and large‐magnitude volcanic events, whereas extreme wildfire events show limited impact on the stratospheric background particle size. Our analysis further suggests that both the particle optical efficiency and the aerosols' stratospheric lifetime explain Hunga's unusually large aerosol optical depth per unit of the SO2 injection, as compared with the Pinatubo eruption. Plain Language Summary: The Hunga Tonga‐Hunga Ha'apai (HTHH) submarine volcano erupted in January 2022, injecting a modest amount of SO2 but a record amount of water vapor relative to other eruptions into the mid‐stratosphere observed in the satellite era. Our climate model simulations of the stratospheric aerosol suggest that the large water vapor injection caused the new particle formation of many new sulfuric acid solution particles with small radius, enhancing the collision efficiency. Rapid collision led to a peak radius of 0.2 μm by February and 0.4 μm by March of 2022. Our analysis finds that both particle optical properties and aerosol persistence collectively exert an influence on normalized anomaly aerosol optical depth, explaining the high aerosol optical depth per unit emission of SO2 by HTHH, relative to the 1991 Pinatubo eruption. Key Points: Co‐injected water vapor triggered a sudden and large production of aerosols, followed by a fast particle growth via coagulationSimulations and observations from La Réunion and Lauder suggest that the stratospheric aerosol size was elevated for 2 yearsBoth the high optical efficiency and long stratospheric lifetime of HTHH aerosol contribute to a higher AOD per unit emission than Pinatubo [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
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