Rochester, New York — On January 14, 2022, a giant underwater volcano erupted, releasing tons of water vapor into the atmosphere.
The Hun Tonga Hunga Ha’apai volcano spews 146 teragrams of water vapor into the stratosphere. This corresponds to about 10% of the water vapor found in the atmospheric layers. This is important because water vapor is a very abundant and powerful greenhouse gas. Before we explain how it can affect our planet, let’s look at the basics of what greenhouse gases are.
Greenhouse gases are essential to our planet because without them it would be very difficult to have life on Earth. They were discovered by French physicist and mathematician Joseph Fourier. Fourier knew that the average temperature on Earth was about 15 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit), but his calculations showed that it should be closer to -18 degrees Celsius, or 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Did. These greenhouse gases play an important role in the atmosphere, keeping the Earth warm and supporting life. These gases include: Water vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), ozone (O3), methane (CH4). During the day, the sun emits solar radiation. That solar radiation is absorbed by the earth’s surface and released at night.
Without greenhouse gases, infrared energy, or warmth, is free to escape into space. But when greenhouse gases are present, they absorb some of that “warmth” and re-emit it back to the Earth’s surface, which keeps us warm.
The amounts of these greenhouse gases are extremely small compared to the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere as a whole. Earth’s atmosphere is made up of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and about 0.96% argon, with the remaining 0.04% made up of these greenhouse gases. Next, let’s talk about those greenhouse gases. Approximately 60% is water vapor, 20% is carbon dioxide, 12% is methane, and the remaining 8% is ozone.
Of these greenhouse gases, water vapor is the most abundant and powerful. The reason water vapor is the strongest is because it absorbs the most infrared wavelengths.
With this basic knowledge of greenhouse gases in mind, let’s return to the story of the Tonga eruption. The Tonga eruption released approximately 146 teragrams of water vapor into the stratosphere. This corresponds to about 10% of the water vapor found in the atmospheric layers. This is because the volcano was located at just the right depth below sea level (about 150 meters underground) and superheated the water above, releasing large amounts of steam. This is unusual because volcanoes typically emit plumes and ash that block sunlight and have a cooling effect. However, this release of large amounts of water vapor may have had the opposite effect on Earth’s surface temperature.
So far in 2023, June, July, August, September and October have been the warmest on record globally. 2023 is also likely to be the warmest year on record, but that is a long way off.
So what’s with this recent surge? What’s causing this unusual warmth? The answer is very likely an eruption in Tonga.
According to the newsletter of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS) “Climate status in 2022” The September release states:
“HTHH (Tonga eruption) is estimated to increase the likelihood of Earth’s annual average surface temperature anomaly of 1.5 degrees Celsius exceeding 7% in the first five years following the eruption.”
This is because excess water vapor in the stratosphere has the opposite effect in the troposphere. In the same journal mentioned above, it also states that “increased stratospheric water vapor concentrations are expected to affect surface climate and tropospheric temperatures in ways that are opposite to their effects on the stratosphere.”
Immediately after the eruption, measurements in the stratosphere near the eruption showed a record cooling effect, indicating some kind of warming at the surface. It is also said that the water vapor concentration did not reach the Northern Hemisphere until the end of 2022, suggesting that the recent warming in the Northern Hemisphere is due to the Tonga eruption.
Now is that the only reason? Probably not. But the release of this large amount of water vapor is most likely playing a large role in the recent surge in global warming. Research is currently being conducted to understand the full impact and duration of this event, as these effects can last for many years. For those interested in reading BAMS’s “State of the Climate in 2022” journal, here is a link. here.