Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai Impacts Activity

Water plume evolution until 2023 January from MLS and WACCM

Xinyue Wang, William Randel and Jon Starr

5 April 2023

A time-lapse animation of H₂O plumes during 2022-02 to 2023-01 from Microwave Limb Sounder observation (red) and the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM) simulations (ensemble mean in black while ten realizations in gray). The number on the upper right corner marks the interval for plotting H₂O. Overall, MLS observations and model-simulated H₂O plume show good agreement. The water plume has spread to most of the globe in the stratosphere.