Tonga eruption's towering plume reached the 3rd layer of Earth's atmosphere
Source: CNN
CNN — When the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted underwater in January, it created a plume of ash and water that broke through the third layer of Earth’s atmosphere. It was the highest-recorded volcanic plume and reached the mesosphere, where meteors and meteorites usually break apart and burn up in our atmosphere.
The mesosphere, about 31 to 50 miles (50 to 80 kilometers) above Earth’s surface, is above the troposphere and stratosphere and beneath two other layers. (The stratosphere and mesosphere are dry atmospheric layers.) The volcanic plume reached an altitude of 35.4 miles (57 kilometers) at its highest. It exceeded previous record holders such as the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption in the Philippines at 24.8 miles (40 kilometers) and the 1982 El Chichón eruption in Mexico, which reached 19.2 miles (31 kilometers).
Researchers used images captured by satellites passing over the eruption site to confirm the plume’s height. The eruption occurred January 15 in the southern Pacific Ocean off the Tongan archipelago, an area covered by three geostationary weather satellites. The GOES-17 satellite captured images of an umbrella cloud generated by the underwater eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano on Jan. 15, 2022. Crescent-shaped bow shock waves and numerous lighting strikes are also visible.
A study detailing the findings published Thursday in the journal Science. The towering plume sent into the upper layers of the atmosphere contained enough water to fill 58,000 Olympic-size swimming pools, according to previous detections from a NASA satellite. Understanding the height of the plume can help researchers study the impact the eruption might have on the global climate.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/03/world/tonga-eruption-plume-mesosphere-scn/index.html
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Softgels!
From that time you came to DC.
and mine did pick it up! Our local NWS office tweeted about it and what one of their mets picked up on their PWS -
Link to tweet
@NWS_MountHolly
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Hi Scott/all - while quite subtle, it does appear observing sites in our area picked up the shockwave from the Tonga volcanic eruption also, around 10AM. This graph is from one of our meteorologist's personal weather station in Mt. Laurel NJ. #NJwx #PAwx #DEwx #MDwx
Image
Scott Mazzella
@LBI_Author
@NWS_MountHolly was this registered here as well?
The below was a snip of the graph from mine -
