The Cross Equatorial Transport of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai Eruption Plume

On 15 January 2022, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai (HT) eruption injected SO2 and water into the middle stratosphere. Shortly after the eruption, the water vapor anomaly moved northward toward and across the equator. This northward movement appears to be due to equatorial Rossby waves forced by the excessive infrared water vapor cooling. Following the early eruption stage, persistent mid-stratospheric water vapor and aerosol layers were mostly confined to Southern Hemisphere tropics (Eq. to 30 degrees S). However, during the spring of 2022, the westerly phase of the tropical quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) descended through the tropics. The HT water vapor and aerosol anomalies were observed to again move across the equator coincident with the shift in the Brewer-Dobson circulation and the descent of the QBO shear zone.

Automated summary

On January 15, 2022, the HT eruption injected SO2 and water into the middle stratosphere. The water vapor anomaly moved northward toward and across the equator due to equatorial Rossby waves forced by excessive infrared water vapor cooling. During the spring of 2022, the westerly phase of the tropical quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) descended through the tropics, causing the HT water vapor and aerosol anomalies to move across the equator again coincident with the shift in the Brewer-Dobson circulation and the descent of the QBO shear zone.