Aerosol characterization within the fresh and aged stratospheric plume from the Hunga Tonga eruption 15 January 2022

The Hunga Tonga eruption on January 14th and 15th 2022 injected water, a variety of gases and aerosols into the Upper Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere up to altitude of ~50 km. Space-borne observations show that the eruption had the strongest impact on the stratospheric Aerosol Optical Depth since the Pinatubo eruption in 1991. We performed two measurement campaigns using weather balloons with the Light Optical Aerosol Counter (LOAC, version 1.5) within the fresh (~1 week post eruption, on Reunion island 21°S) and aged (~8 months post eruption, in South Africa 24°S) stratospheric Hunga Tonga plume. Within this talk, I will present aerosol size distribution and typology information based on LOAC in situ measurements, in the context of collocated ground-based aerosol lidar profiles recorded at OPAR (Observatoire de Physique de l'Atmosphère à La Réunion) and global space-borne observations. Plume peak altitudes have decreased by 2-3 km between the two in situ measurement campaigns. LOAC observations point to exclusively small aerosol particles (
The 28th IUGG General Assembly (IUGG2023) (Berlin 2023)