Observing the SO<sub>2</sub> and Sulfate Aerosol Plumes From the 2022 Hunga Eruption With the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI)
Abstract The Hunga volcano violently erupted on 15 January 2022, producing the largest perturbation of the stratospheric aerosol layer since Pinatubo 1991, despite the initially estimated modest injection of SO 2 . This study presents novel SO 2 and sulfate aerosol (SA) co‐retrievals from the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer, and uses them to quantify the initial progression of the Hunga plume. These observations are consistent with rapid conversion of SO 2 (e‐folding time: 17.1 ± 4.3 days) to SA, with an injected burden of >1.0 Tg SO 2 . This points at larger SO 2 injections than previously thought. A long‐lasting SA plume was observed, with two separate build‐up phases, and with a meridional dispersion of marked anomalies from the tropics to the higher southern hemispheric latitudes. A limited (∼20%) SA removal was observed after 1‐year dispersion. The total injected SA mass burden was estimated at 1.6 ± 0.5 Tg in the total atmospheric column, with a build‐up e‐folding time of about 2 months.
Authors
- Clair Duchamp (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8759-4064)
- Richard Siddans (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3097-5816)
- Aurélien Podglajen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9768-3511)
- Pasquale Sellitto (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7440-2350)
- Redha Belhadji (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0004-7366-8332)
- Bernard Legras (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3756-7794)
- Elisa Carboni (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0236-7856)
- Brian J. Kerridge
Institutions
- Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (GB)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- École Polytechnique (FR)
- Université Paris-Est Créteil (FR)
- Université Paris Cité (FR)
- Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (IT)
- École Normale Supérieure - PSL (FR)
- Sorbonne Université (FR)
- Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (FR)
- National Centre for Earth Observation (GB)
- Laboratoire Interuniversitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques (FR)
- Laboratoire Techniques, Territoires et Sociétés (FR)
- INGV Osservatorio Etneo
Publication Details
- Journal
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Published
- 2024-10-03
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1029/2023gl105565
- Citations
- 15
- Primary Topic
- Atmospheric Ozone and Climate
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 5.64
Funders
- Sight Research UK
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche
- Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales
- Natural Environment Research Council
- Institut national des sciences de l'Univers
- National Centre for Earth Observation