Stratospheric ozone depletion inside the volcanic plume shortly after the 2022 Hunga Tonga eruption

Zhu, Yunqian; Portmann, Robert W.; Kinnison, Douglas; Toon, Owen Brian; Millán, Luis; Zhang, Jun; Vömel, Holger; Tilmes, Simone; Bardeen, Charles G.; Wang, Xinyue; Evan, Stephanie; Randel, William J.; Rosenlof, Karen H.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13355-2023

Articles | Volume 23, issue 20

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13355-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13355-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 23, issue 20

Research article

|

23 Oct 2023

Research article |

| 23 Oct 2023

Stratospheric ozone depletion inside the volcanic plume shortly after the 2022 Hunga Tonga eruption

Yunqian Zhu, Robert W. Portmann, Douglas Kinnison, Owen Brian Toon, Luis Millán, Jun Zhang, Holger Vömel, Simone Tilmes, Charles G. Bardeen, Xinyue Wang, Stephanie Evan, William J. Randel, and Karen H. Rosenlof

Data sets

Tonga initial chemistry Y. Zhu https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/F69NS

MLS/Aura Level 2 Water Vapor (H2O) Mixing Ratio V004 A. Lambert, W. Read, and W. Livesey https://doi.org/10.5067/Aura/MLS/DATA2009

Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai stratospheric water vapor from Vaisala RS41 radiosondes, Version 1.0 H. Vömel, S. Evan, and M. Tully https://doi.org/10.5065/p328-z959

Model code and software

Community Earth System Model 2 (CESM2) NCAR https://www.cesm.ucar.edu/models/cesm2/download

Short summary

The 2022 Hunga Tonga eruption injected a large amount of water into the stratosphere. Ozone depletion was observed inside the volcanic plume. Chlorine and water vapor injected by this eruption exceeded the normal range, which made the ozone chemistry during this event occur at a higher temperature than polar ozone depletion. Unlike polar ozone chemistry where chlorine nitrate is more important, hypochlorous acid plays a large role in the in-plume chlorine balance and heterogeneous processes.