NASA's Data On The Massive Tonga Volcanic Eruption Will Blow Your Mind

In January 2022, a massive volcanic eruption rocked the small Pacific island nation Tonga. Sound waves from the blast traveled as far away as Alaska, and experts believe it was the loudest event to occur on Earth in more than a century. The signs of devastation on Tonga itself were apparent as ash covered homes and buildings. The Tongan airport was also closed down and undersea lines of communication were cut. Now, satellite imagery from NASA offers new perspective on just how large the Tongan volcanic eruption truly was, according to NPR.

Prior to the 2022 explosion of the submarine volcano Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai, near Tonga, satellites had only previously captured data on one other gigantic volcanic eruption in the early 1990s at Mount Pinatubo, near the Philippines. That eruption shot ash and volcanic aerosols such as sulfur dioxide gas more than 20 miles into the atmosphere (via Britannica). According to Kristopher Bedka, an atmospheric scientist at NASA Langley, speaking with NASA's Earth Observatory website, the Tongan volcanic eruption far exceeds that — or any other event of its kind that has so far been observed from space. (A smaller underwater volcanic eruption near Tonga from 2009 is pictured above).

As NASA's Earth Observatory website goes on to report, data gathered and analyzed in Luis Millán's study came from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 17, also known as GOES-17,  as well as the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) satellite Himawari-8. Scientists involved in the research reached their conclusions by applying an algorithmic calculation previously used to analyze thunderstorms and other types of extreme weather events. 

Crucial to the process was the ability to process data of the same event from two sets of satellite imagery. Through that synthesis of satellite data, a stereoscopic animation of sorts was created of the explosion as it happened. Measurements were then compared against NASA GEOS-5 model analysis to confirm the findings. Of the study, NASA Langley atmospheric scientist Kristopher Bedka said, "We are fortunate that it was viewed so well by our latest generation of geostationary satellites and we can use this data in innovative ways to document its evolution."

Also notable, though, about the underwater volcanic eruption near Tonga is that for all the devastation created, the eruption itself was relatively short when compared to other major blasts, as reported by NPR. Some major eruptions in the past have lasted for hours, but for all the fury unleashed by Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai, it was all over in less than an hour. That big impact in a small time frame is more common with on-land volcanic eruptions, as experts told the outlet, and the fact that it happened from a submarine explosion only adds to the mystery. As a scientist involved in the study said (via NPR), "[T]hat's just a head-scratcher."

In addition to ash and volcanic aerosols, what was also revealed in the Tongan study is that enough water (vapor) to fill 58,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools blasted into Earth's stratosphere, as high as 33 miles above the surface, per CNN. That amount of water vapor could temporarily warm the planet. Though expected to dissipate, excess water vapor can stay in the atmosphere for years, and lead to a number of damaging chemical reactions in Earth's protective layer. Scientists now think the depth of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai's caldera was a contributing factor to the massive amount of water vapor created — it was the precise depth needed, about 150 feet.