Maps of volcanic plume and lightning development on January 15, 2022, with times shown in UTC. Grayscale provides stereoscopic cloud heights, blue dots show lightning flashes found by ground-based radio frequency networks over the following minute, and purple-yellow color scale shows optically discovered lightning from the GLM sensing unit. (*) indicates frames with optically spotted lightning. A minimum of four unique lightning rings happen from 04:16 to 05:51 followed by a last ring from 08:38– 08:48. The initial and most prominent ring (noticeable in the very first four frames) focused at the leading edge of a gravity wave within the upper umbrella cloud. Pink circles outline the lightning ring in two frames, showing an (average) expansion rate surpassing 60 m s − 1. Westward advection of the upper umbrella begins to expose a lower level cloud by 05:37. White rushed polygons describe the lightning areas, showing their westward motion with the dizzying umbrella cloud. Local islands are laid out in black. Credit: Van Eaton et al. (2023 ), Geophysical Research Letters, doi: 10.1029/ 2022GL102341.
High-resolution lightning data from four different sources– never previously utilized all together– have now let researchers peer into that plume, teasing out brand-new stages of the eruptions life process and acquiring insights into the unusual weather it produced.
” This eruption set off a supercharged thunderstorm, the likes of which weve never ever seen,” stated Alexa Van Eaton, a volcanologist at the United States Geological Survey who led the research study. “These findings demonstrate a new tool we have to keep an eye on volcanoes at the speed of light and assist the USGSs function to notify ash hazard advisories to aircraft.”.
The research study was released in Geophysical Research Letters, which publishes high-impact, short-format reports with immediate implications covering all Earth and space sciences.
The storm established since the extremely energetic expulsion of magma took place to blast through the shallow ocean, Van Eaton said. Molten rock vaporized the seawater, which increased up into the plume and eventually formed electrifying collisions between ashes, supercooled water, and hailstones. The best storm for lightning.
More than 200,000 lightning flashes, shown as blue dots, happened throughout the period of the eruption at Tongas Hunga Volcano on January 15, 2022. New analyses of the eruptions lightning strength revealed the volcanic storm was the most extreme ever tape-recorded and supplied new insights into the eruptions development. Credit: Van Eaton et al. (2023 ), Geophysical Research Letters, doi: 10.1029/ 2022GL102341.
Integrating information from sensing units that determine light and radio waves, the scientists tracked lightning flashes and estimated their heights. The eruption produced simply over 192,000 flashes (comprised of nearly 500,000 electrical pulses), peaking at 2,615 flashes per minute. A few of this lightning reached unmatched altitudes in Earths environment, in between 20 to 30 kilometers (12 to 19 miles) high.
” With this eruption, we found that volcanic plumes can develop the conditions for lightning far beyond the realm of meteorological thunderstorms weve formerly observed,” Van Eaton stated. “It ends up, volcanic eruptions can develop more extreme lightning than any other type of storm in the world.”.
The lightning offered insight into not just the period of the eruption, however likewise its habits in time.
” The eruption lasted a lot longer than the hour or two at first observed,” Van Eaton said. “The January 15 activity created volcanic plumes for at least 11 hours. It was truly just from looking at the lightning information that we had the ability to pull that out.”.
The scientists saw four distinct stages of eruptive activity, specified by plume heights and lightning rates as they waxed and waned. The insights acquired from connecting lightning strength to eruptive activity can provide better monitoring and nowcasting of aviation-related risks throughout a large volcanic eruption, including ash cloud advancement and movement, Van Eaton stated.
” It wasnt just the lightning intensity that drew us in,” Van Eaton stated. She and her associates were also puzzled by the concentric rings of lightning, centered on the volcano, which contracted and broadened over time.
Extreme, high-altitude turbulence was once again responsible. The plume injected a lot mass into the upper environment that it sent out ripples in the volcanic cloud, like dropping pebbles in a pond. The lightning appeared to browse these waves and move outward as 250-kilometer-wide rings.
As if all that wasnt enough to make this eruption fascinating, it represents a design of volcanism known as phreatoplinian, which takes place when a large volume of magma appears through water. Formerly, this eruption design was just understood from the geological record and had never ever been observed with modern-day instrumentation. The Hunga eruption altered all that.
” It was like uncovering a dinosaur and seeing it stroll around on four legs,” Van Eaton stated. “Sort of takes your breath away.”.
Recommendation: “Lightning Rings and Gravity Waves: Insights Into the Giant Eruption Plume From Tongas Hunga Volcano on 15 January 2022” by Alexa R. Van Eaton, Jeff Lapierre, Sonja A. Behnke, Chris Vagasky, Christopher J. Schultz, Michael Pavolonis, Kristopher Bedka and Konstantin Khlopenkov, 20 June 2023, Geophysical Research Letters.DOI: 10.1029/ 2022GL102341.
The January 15, 2022, eruption of Hunga Volcano in Tonga continues to exceed. According to a brand-new research study, the eruption created a “supercharged” thunderstorm that produced the most intense lightning ever taped. There were almost 200,000 lightning flashes in the volcanic plume throughout the eruption, peaking at more than 2,600 flashes every minute, the scientists found.
When the submarine volcano appeared in the southern Pacific Ocean, it generated a plume of ash, water, and magmatic gas at least 58 kilometers (36 miles) high. The imposing plume provided scientists beneficial info about the scale of the eruption, but it also obscured the vent from satellite view, making it harder to track changes in the eruption as it progressed.
The January 15 eruption lasted at least 11 hours, a number of hours longer than formerly known.
The plume produced the highest-altitude lightning flashes ever measured, 20 to 30 kilometers (12 to 19 miles) above water level.
Lightning “surfed” huge waves that rippled through volcanic plume.
Lightning data expose previously unidentified stages of the eruption, notify future volcanic threat tracking.
New analyses of the eruptions lightning strength revealed the volcanic storm was the most extreme ever taped and provided new insights into the eruptions progression. There were almost 200,000 lightning flashes in the volcanic plume throughout the eruption, peaking at more than 2,600 flashes every minute, the scientists discovered.
Grayscale provides stereoscopic cloud heights, blue dots show lightning flashes identified by ground-based radio frequency networks over the following minute, and purple-yellow color scale shows optically spotted lightning from the GLM sensor. New analyses of the eruptions lightning strength revealed the volcanic storm was the most extreme ever tape-recorded and offered brand-new insights into the eruptions development. The insights gained from linking lightning strength to eruptive activity can provide better monitoring and nowcasting of aviation-related dangers during a big volcanic eruption, consisting of ash cloud advancement and movement, Van Eaton said.
More than 200,000 lightning flashes, shown as blue dots, took place throughout the period of the eruption at Tongas Hunga Volcano on January 15, 2022. New analyses of the eruptions lightning strength revealed the volcanic storm was the most extreme ever tape-recorded and supplied brand-new insights into the eruptions progression. Credit: Van Eaton et al. (2023 ), Geophysical Research Letters, doi: 10.1029/ 2022GL102341.
The eruption produced 2,600 flashes per minute at peak intensity. Scientists used the lightning to peer into the ash cloud, teasing out brand-new information of the eruptions timeline.