Volcanic ash from Tonga hits record heights, but cooling the environment seems unlikely.

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Our planet's greatest explosive volcanic explosion in 30 years was the Tonga eruptive event.

On Saturday, a volcano in Polynesia erupted, releasing a record amount of ash into the atmosphere, but experts say it won't impact the Earth's climate.

An Oxford University research fellow reported on Twitter on Monday that satellites spotted the ash cloud, which has already extended across Australia, at more than 24 miles (39 kilometres) above Earth's surface (Jan. 17). He said this was the first time that volcanic ash had been discovered thus high in the atmosphere.

A preliminary review of weather satellite data reveals that the Tonga volcanic cloud rose to an altitude of 39 kilometres (24 miles)," Proud stated. This is the highest cloud we've ever seen if it's accurate. "We'll be able to verify it in the next few days."

According to scientists, the Earth's climate is not expected to be affected by this eruption. Compared to other catastrophic volcanic eruptions from prior centuries, this one had a little ash in it despite its cataclysmic proportions, which were captured by numerous satellites in real-time.

Too little sulfate of phosphorus

Sulfur dioxide emitted from supervolcanoes like Tonga into Earth's upper atmosphere has been shown to have a cooling influence on the planet's climate. For example, this impact was discovered after the 1991 explosion of Mount Pinatubo (opens in new tab) in the Philippines. For up to two years after this eruption, the globe was cooler than ever, making it the second most intense volcanic explosion of the twentieth century. On the other hand, Tonga emitted only 400,000 metric tons of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere or roughly 2% of the sulfur dioxide produced by Mount Pinatubo.

According to Karen Rosenlof, a specialist in atmospheric chemistry at the U.S. National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration (NOAA), the amount of sulfur dioxide emitted by the Hunga-Tonga eruption is a minuscule fraction of what was emitted by the eruption of Mount Pinatubo. Consequently, I don't expect a major change in global surface temperature."

Rosenlof said that even the Pinatubo aerosols only had a short-term influence, measurable for around a year or two, which suggests that the volcano will not buy humans time in their fight against climate change.

New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) announced on Twitter on Monday that the plume had already stretched over Australia, more than 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometres) west of Tonga, causing record quantities of sulfur dioxide above the Pacific Ocean (Jan. 17). Sulfur dioxide can irritate the respiratory tract and aggravate disorders like asthma, making it a possible health hazard. Acid rain can be produced when the gas reacts with atmospheric water, which is bad for plants.

Satellites are a reliable source of evidence.

Satellites in orbit around the Earth have already provided ample documentation of the eruption in the remote South Pacific Ocean. At the height of 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometres), three weather satellites in the geostationary ring captured the explosion itself, resulting in a rapidly expanding bubble of dust and debris that appeared to be suspended above a specific location on Earth.

Satellites of the European Earth-monitoring program Copernicus, as well as the American Earth-observation corporation Planet, captured images of the ill-fated Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai island before and after the catastrophic eruption.

Fortunately, the island was completely deserted. In 2009, a volcanic eruption combined two formerly independent islands, Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha'apai, into one larger island. The ruins of these two islands are once again scattered across the ocean floor.

Responders are worried about the impact on neighbouring islands of the Kingdom of Tonga of the tsunami caused by the eruption. The Polynesian state is perched perilously on the tectonically unstable dividing line between the Pacific and Australian plates in the South Pacific Ocean. Tongatapu, the kingdom's largest island, is barely 65 kilometres (40 miles) south of the volcano. An immediate thick volcanic cloud enveloped the entire region, but local communication networks were severely damaged due to the disaster, which has yet to be fully assessed.

Maxar Technologies' satellites captured images after the eruption that reveals damage may not be as severe as the blast's enormity suggests.

Evan Hill, a visual investigator at the New York Times who released the images on Twitter on Monday evening, stated that the "new high definition before and after satellite images from Nuku'alofa, the capital of Tonga, contain comparatively good news: though there is obvious tsunami damage most buildings appear to be intact, though covered in volcanic ash".

It was felt around the globe.

He told Radio New Zealand on Monday that the Tonga eruption may have been the most intense since the Mount Pinatubo eruption in 1991, which occurred in 1991. As Cronin explained in a separate interview with the New Zealand Media Center, it was the most significant one since about 1100 AD for Hunga Tonga.

"The extremely massive eruption of Jan. 15 2022, is remarkable because of the quick lateral development of the eruption cloud (visible in satellite photographs), coupled with tsunami and atmospheric shockwaves," added Cronin. "This shows that Hunga volcano has erupted with significant volumes of gas-charged magma."

The eruption's shockwave swept across Earth's atmosphere at 1,100 kilometres per hour (680 miles per hour). It encircled the Earth twice in one day. According to the World Meteorological Organization, barometers across Europe registered pressure shifts of 2 to 3 millibars due to the passing shockwave.

As seen by satellites in Europe and Africa, an explosion on the opposite side of the world caused the atmosphere to bounce back.

Shock waves caused by the eruption could be heard up to 1,900 kilometres (1,200 miles) distant in other countries, including New Zealand, according to hydrodynamics specialist Emily Lane of New Zealand National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research . According to the New Zealand Media Center, the tsunami caused by the eruption was felt as far away as Japan, Alaska, and South America.

According to Cronin, some lava spouted from the volcano in late 2014 and early 2015, but this weekend's eruption was far larger than that. In the next days and weeks, he said, the volcano might spew additional ash and gas and lava into the air. The magnitude of the new crater created by the eruption has yet to be assessed, but it may collapse and cause additional tsunamis.

Reference : https://www.livescience.com/tonga-volcano-ash-record-altitude

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