Seminar

Abstract

The 2022 Hunga volcano erupted a significant amount of water vapor and moderate SO2 into the stratosphere causing an unusual response in the climate system. Many interesting and unexpected phenomena occur after this eruption due to the water injection, such as quick formation and descending of volcanic sulfate, large aerosol extinction efficiency, mid-latitude ozone depletion, strong stratospheric and mesospheric cooling, etc. This presentation will give a discussion of several interesting observations and subsequent questions arising from the Hunga Tonga research community, with a focus on climate modeling efforts.

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Yunqian Zhu is a research scientist affiliated with CIRES at NOAA CSL. She graduated from University of Colorado Boulder in 2015 and has lived in Colorado since then. She is expert in model development and simulations of stratospheric aerosols, such as sulfate, volcanic ash, Asian Tropopause Aerosol Layer, and polar stratospheric clouds.