TY - JOUR
T1 - Eruption chronology of the December 2021 to January 2022 Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption sequence
AU - Gupta, Ashok Kumar
AU - Bennartz, Ralf
AU - Fauria, Kristen E.
AU - Mittal, Tushar
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
PY - 2022/12
Y1 - 2022/12
N2 - The 15 January 2022 eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai, and the preceding eruptions on 19 December 2021 and 13 January 2022, were remarkable, partly because the eruptions generated extensive umbrella clouds, regions where the volcanic clouds spread laterally. Here we use satellite remote sensing to evaluate the umbrella cloud tops’ heights, longevities, water contents, and volumetric flow rates. We identified two umbrella clouds at distinct elevations on 15 January 2022. Specifically, after 05:30 UTC, the strong westward propagation of an upper umbrella cloud at 31 km ± 3 km enabled the visibility of the lower umbrella cloud at 17 km ± 2 km. The satellite-derived volumetric flow rate for 15 January 2022 was ~5.0 × 1011 m3 s−1, nearly two orders of magnitude higher than the volumetric flow rates estimated for the 19 December 2021 and 13 January 2022 eruptions. Finally, we found that the umbrellas on all three dates were ice-rich.
AB - The 15 January 2022 eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai, and the preceding eruptions on 19 December 2021 and 13 January 2022, were remarkable, partly because the eruptions generated extensive umbrella clouds, regions where the volcanic clouds spread laterally. Here we use satellite remote sensing to evaluate the umbrella cloud tops’ heights, longevities, water contents, and volumetric flow rates. We identified two umbrella clouds at distinct elevations on 15 January 2022. Specifically, after 05:30 UTC, the strong westward propagation of an upper umbrella cloud at 31 km ± 3 km enabled the visibility of the lower umbrella cloud at 17 km ± 2 km. The satellite-derived volumetric flow rate for 15 January 2022 was ~5.0 × 1011 m3 s−1, nearly two orders of magnitude higher than the volumetric flow rates estimated for the 19 December 2021 and 13 January 2022 eruptions. Finally, we found that the umbrellas on all three dates were ice-rich.
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U2 - 10.1038/s43247-022-00606-3
DO - 10.1038/s43247-022-00606-3
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85144368960
SN - 2662-4435
VL - 3
JO - Communications Earth and Environment
JF - Communications Earth and Environment
IS - 1
M1 - 314
ER -