Global perturbation of stratospheric water and aerosol burden by Hunga eruption

The eruption of the submarine Hunga volcano in January 2022 was associated with a powerful blast that injected volcanic material to altitudes up to 58 km. From a combination of various types of satellite and ground-based observations supported by transport modeling, we show evidence for an unprecedented increase in the global stratospheric water mass by 13% relative to climatological levels, and a 5-fold increase of stratospheric aerosol load, the highest in the last three decades. Owing to the extreme injection altitude, the volcanic plume circumnavigated the Earth in only 1 week and dispersed nearly pole-to-pole in three months. The unique nature and magnitude of the global stratospheric perturbation by the Hunga eruption ranks it among the most remarkable climatic events in the modern observation era, with a range of potential long-lasting repercussions for stratospheric composition and climate.

Sergey Khaykin, Aurelien Podglajen, Felix Ploeger, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Florent Tence, Slimane Bekki, Konstantin Khlopenkov, Kristopher Bedka, Landon Rieger, Alexandre Baron, Sophie Godin-Beekmann, Bernard Legras, Pasquale Sellitto, Tetsu Sakai, John Barnes, Osamu Uchino, Isamu Morino, Tomohiro Nagai, Robin Wing, Gerd Baumgarten, Michael Gerding, Valentin Duflot, Guillaume Payen, Julien Jumelet, Richard Querel, Ben Liley, Adam Bourassa, Benjamin Clouser, Artem Feofilov, Alain Hauchecorne, François Ravetta