Posted on 07/31/2023 10:26:52 AM PDT by grundle
Tonga Eruption Blasted Unprecedented Amount of Water Into Stratosphere
The huge amount of water vapor hurled into the atmosphere, as detected by NASA’s Microwave Limb Sounder, could end up temporarily warming Earth’s surface.
When the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted on Jan. 15, it sent a tsunami racing around the world and set off a sonic boom that circled the globe twice. The underwater eruption in the South Pacific Ocean also blasted an enormous plume of water vapor into Earth’s stratosphere – enough to fill more than 58,000 Olympic-size swimming pools. The sheer amount of water vapor could be enough to temporarily affect Earth’s global average temperature.
“We’ve never seen anything like it,” said Luis Millán, an atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. He led a new study examining the amount of water vapor that the Tonga volcano injected into the stratosphere, the layer of the atmosphere between about 8 and 33 miles (12 and 53 kilometers) above Earth’s surface.
In the study, published in Geophysical Research Letters, Millán and his colleagues estimate that the Tonga eruption sent around 146 teragrams (1 teragram equals a trillion grams) of water vapor into Earth’s stratosphere – equal to 10% of the water already present in that atmospheric layer. That’s nearly four times the amount of water vapor that scientists estimate the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption in the Philippines lofted into the stratosphere.
Millán analyzed data from the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) instrument on NASA’s Aura satellite, which measures atmospheric gases, including water vapor and ozone. After the Tonga volcano erupted, the MLS team started seeing water vapor readings that were off the charts. “We had to carefully inspect all the measurements in the plume to make sure they were trustworthy,” said Millán.
A Lasting Impression
Volcanic eruptions rarely inject much water into the stratosphere. In the 18 years that NASA has been taking measurements, only two other eruptions – the 2008 Kasatochi event in Alaska and the 2015 Calbuco eruption in Chile – sent appreciable amounts of water vapor to such high altitudes. But those were mere blips compared to the Tonga event, and the water vapor from both previous eruptions dissipated quickly. The excess water vapor injected by the Tonga volcano, on the other hand, could remain in the stratosphere for several years.
This extra water vapor could influence atmospheric chemistry, boosting certain chemical reactions that could temporarily worsen depletion of the ozone layer. It could also influence surface temperatures. Massive volcanic eruptions like Krakatoa and Mount Pinatubo typically cool Earth’s surface by ejecting gases, dust, and ash that reflect sunlight back into space. In contrast, the Tonga volcano didn’t inject large amounts of aerosols into the stratosphere, and the huge amounts of water vapor from the eruption may have a small, temporary warming effect, since water vapor traps heat. The effect would dissipate when the extra water vapor cycles out of the stratosphere and would not be enough to noticeably exacerbate climate change effects.
The sheer amount of water injected into the stratosphere was likely only possible because the underwater volcano’s caldera – a basin-shaped depression usually formed after magma erupts or drains from a shallow chamber beneath the volcano – was at just the right depth in the ocean: about 490 feet (150 meters) down. Any shallower, and there wouldn’t have been enough seawater superheated by the erupting magma to account for the stratospheric water vapor values Millán and his colleagues saw. Any deeper, and the immense pressures in the ocean’s depths could have muted the eruption.
The MLS instrument was well situated to detect this water vapor plume because it observes natural microwave signals emitted from Earth’s atmosphere. Measuring these signals enables MLS to “see” through obstacles like ash clouds that can blind other instruments measuring water vapor in the stratosphere. “MLS was the only instrument with dense enough coverage to capture the water vapor plume as it happened, and the only one that wasn’t affected by the ash that the volcano released,” said Millán.
The MLS instrument was designed and built by JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center manages the Aura mission.
I’d like to think that people are smart enough to figure out that the climate Nazis are crying “ wolf.” Even so, Nazis can do a lot of harm in the interim.
“Will it be raining fish?”
Of course! That’s how we get Sharknados!
“The vast amount of material blasted upwards by the volcanic eruption rapidly rose to its maximum height and expanded outward to create an umbrella-shaped cloud more than 186 miles (300km) wide. The momentum generated by the blast caused the material in the plume to continually “overshoot” into the stratosphere, generating fast-moving concentric ripples known as gravity waves, a little like dropping pebbles in a pond. The lightning appeared to “surf” these waves and expanded outward, in a pattern of 155 mile-wide (250km) rings.”
How the Tonga Hunga volcano produced the most intense lightning ever seen
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230713-how-the-tonga-hunga-volcano-produced-the-most-intense-lightning-ever-seen
Average stratosphere temperature is -60F. That water vapor is ice crystals now, reflecting sunlight away.
Sharknados? I am climbing up on my roof with my twice barrel shotgun.
Butt, butt, butt.......
This information has been published and available for over one year and Kerry and the other Climate Changers never made a single reference to it in all their publications. It was the worst eruption in 1200 years, it pumped 58 Billion tons of vapor and ash into the atmosphere and not a word has been mentioned by the Climate Changers. When Tongo erupted it shook the entire Planet, every Seismic receiver around the Earth recorded the eruption.
Did humans cause the eruption? Trump?
how to increase co2 in greenhouse
No butts about it!
But eating bugs and driving battery powered skateboards will appease Gaia.
Bill Gates already has a vaccine for water vapor
Glad it’s not just me. I was totally underwhelmed that figure also. I would think my lake could easily fill more than 58,000 swimming pools, but I would think such a historic event as described here would fill my lake many times over…
Yep, I've been pointing this out for years.
Yes, but it will be minnowmal.
There are actually several “greenhouse” gasses. such as water VAPOR (not clouds) CO2, methane for example. Water VAPOR is BY FAR the largest contributor to a warm atmosphere.
CO2 is only about 0.04% of the atmosphere. Water vapor varies, but can be approximated at 4% of the atmosphere. So it’s TWO ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE more prevalent that C02 *and* it’s a more powerful greenhouse gas.
Water vapor, by the way, is a natural combustion byproduct of hydrogen. So ... anything that burns hydrogen is FAR from green by definition ;-)
Everybody’s gone surfin’, surfin’ HungaTongaHua..
And yet, she didn’t start pulling off her clothes.
Oh no! I’m distraught at this news. All of the progress we have made in the struggle against climate change and now this! We will have to work much harder and sacrifice much much more to overcome this setback.
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