2023 NESSI Presentations - Daniel Bonilla
Channel: NSF NCAR & UCAR Science Education
Date: 24/08/2023

Watch 2023 NESSI intern Daniel Bonilla's end-of-summer presentation, "Evolution of Atmospheric H2O, SO2, and SO4 after the 2022 Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai Volcanic Eruption."

The January 15, 2022 eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai (HTHH) underwater volcano sent an unprecedented amount of water (H2O) and moderate amounts of sulfur dioxide (SO2) high into the stratosphere. This eruption can have a significant impact on atmospheric compositions and climate. There is a need to understand long-term changes of the atmospheric dynamics and chemistry from the injection of these pollutants. This research aims to showcase the evolution of volcanic gasses and aerosols (H2O, SO2, and SO4) to explore the potential global impacts as a result of the eruption. We use the Community Earth System Model version 2 (CESM2) WACCM6 (Gettelman et al. 2019) to simulate the stratospheric H2O and aerosol enhancements due to the HTHH eruption. Two experiments are conducted: the experiment case with SO2 and H2O injection from the HTHH eruption and the control case with no volcano injection. The difference between these two experiments gives information about the volcanic impact on the atmosphere. We find that the concentrations of H2O, and aerosols largely enhanced in the stratosphere after the eruption compared to the background atmosphere. They are slowly propagating from the tropics towards Southern hemisphere higher latitudes and sedimenting to the lower stratosphere later in 2022. This persistent volcanic H2O and aerosol potentially have a significant impact on climate change and stratospheric ozone. These results in this study can help with future analysis on the long-term impact from this volcano eruption.