Radiative impact of the Hunga stratospheric volcanic plume: role of aerosols and water vapor over Réunion Island (21°&thinsp;S, 55°&thinsp;E)

Sicard, Michaël; Baron, Alexandre; Ranaivombola, Marion; Gantois, Dominique; Millet, Tristan; Sellitto, Pasquale; Bègue, Nelson; Bencherif, Hassan; Payen, Guillaume; Marquestaut, Nicolas; Duflot, Valentin

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-367-2025

Articles | Volume 25, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-367-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-367-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 25, issue 1

Research article

|

13 Jan 2025

Research article |

| 13 Jan 2025

Radiative impact of the Hunga stratospheric volcanic plume: role of aerosols and water vapor over Réunion Island (21° S, 55° E)

Michaël Sicard, Alexandre Baron, Marion Ranaivombola, Dominique Gantois, Tristan Millet, Pasquale Sellitto, Nelson Bègue, Hassan Bencherif, Guillaume Payen, Nicolas Marquestaut, and Valentin Duflot

Data sets

LIDAR 1200 - La Réunion Maïdo station - Level 2B Aerosol Michaël Sicard https://doi.org/10.25326/714

OMPS-NPP L2 LP Aerosol Extinction Vertical Profile swath daily 3slit V2 Ghassan Taha https://doi.org/10.5067/CX2B9NW6FI27

MLS/Aura Level 3 Monthly Binned Water Vapor (H2O) Mixing Ratio on Assorted Grids V005 A. Lambert et al. https://doi.org/10.5067/Aura/MLS/DATA/3538

M2-SCREAM: 3d, 3-Hourly, Instantaneous, Model-Level, Assimilation, Assimilated Constituent Fields, Replayed MERRA-2 Meteorological Fields Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) https://doi.org/10.5067/7PR3XRD6Q3NQ

Short summary

This study quantifies the radiative impact over Réunion Island (21° S, 55° E) of the aerosols and water vapor injected into the stratosphere by the Hunga volcano in the South Pacific. The overall aerosol and water vapor impact on the Earth’s radiation budget for the whole period is negative (cooling, -0.82 ± 0.35 W m^-2) and dominated by the aerosols. At the Earth’s surface, aerosols are the main drivers and produce a negative (cooling, -1.04 ± 0.36 W m^-2) radiative impact.