Surface-to-space atmospheric waves from Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai eruption

Corwin J. Wright (), Neil P. Hindley, M. Joan Alexander, Mathew Barlow, Lars Hoffmann, Cathryn N. Mitchell, Fred Prata, Marie Bouillon, Justin Carstens, Cathy Clerbaux, Scott M. Osprey, Nick Powell, Cora E. Randall and Jia Yue
Additional contact information
Corwin J. Wright: University of Bath
Neil P. Hindley: University of Bath
M. Joan Alexander: Northwest Research Associates
Mathew Barlow: University of Massachusetts Lowell
Lars Hoffmann: Forschungszentrum Jülich
Cathryn N. Mitchell: University of Bath
Fred Prata: AIRES Pty Ltd
Marie Bouillon: Sorbonne Université, UVSQ, CNRS
Justin Carstens: Virginia Tech
Cathy Clerbaux: Sorbonne Université, UVSQ, CNRS
Scott M. Osprey: University of Oxford
Nick Powell: Raytheon Technologies
Cora E. Randall: University of Colorado Boulder
Jia Yue: Community Coordinated Modeling Center

Nature, 2022, vol. 609, issue 7928, 741-746

Abstract: Abstract The January 2022 Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai eruption was one of the most explosive volcanic events of the modern era1,2, producing a vertical plume that peaked more than 50 km above the Earth3. The initial explosion and subsequent plume triggered atmospheric waves that propagated around the world multiple times4. A global-scale wave response of this magnitude from a single source has not previously been observed. Here we show the details of this response, using a comprehensive set of satellite and ground-based observations to quantify it from surface to ionosphere. A broad spectrum of waves was triggered by the initial explosion, including Lamb waves5,6 propagating at phase speeds of 318.2 ± 6 m s−1 at surface level and between 308 ± 5 to 319 ± 4 m s−1 in the stratosphere, and gravity waves7 propagating at 238 ± 3 to 269 ± 3 m s−1 in the stratosphere. Gravity waves at sub-ionospheric heights have not previously been observed propagating at this speed or over the whole Earth from a single source8,9. Latent heat release from the plume remained the most significant individual gravity wave source worldwide for more than 12 h, producing circular wavefronts visible across the Pacific basin in satellite observations. A single source dominating such a large region is also unique in the observational record. The Hunga Tonga eruption represents a key natural experiment in how the atmosphere responds to a sudden point-source-driven state change, which will be of use for improving weather and climate models.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05012-5 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:609:y:2022:i:7928:d:10.1038_s41586-022-05012-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05012-5

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().