Volcanism Can Have Huge Impacts on Global Climate

Exactly one year ago tomorrow marks the anniversary of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption.  Since then the scientific community has been pouring over data from across the globe trying to understand the effects it had on our planet and how it might affect the global climate over the next few years at least. As you may know this was the biggest eruption in modern day, but major volcanic eruptions that have effects on the climate both on a local and on a global scale are nothing new to the planet. Here is a cool link from NASA discussing some of the Tonga-Hunga effects way up at the level of the ionosphere.  

 “ ICON launched in 2019 to identify how Earth’s weather interacts with weather from space – a relatively new idea supplanting previous assumptions that only forces from the Sun and space could create weather at the edge of the ionosphere.”  “These results are an exciting look at how events on Earth can affect weather in space, in addition to space weather affecting Earth,” said Jim Spann, space weather lead for NASA’s Heliophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. “Understanding space weather holistically will ultimately help us mitigate its effects on society.”

I point out these quotes from the link below for two reasons. First because I am happy to see that there are govt agencies realizing that there may be a connection between the sun and space weather and its link to the weather/climate down here in the troposphere even if some of the people in charge and main stream media outlets still don’t allow that discussion yet. And second only in 2019 has this modern satellite called the ICON been placed in this level of our atmosphere specifically designed to look at the interaction between space and the ground as well as the ground with space. Meaning, we are only beginning to scratch the surface of our understanding of how the charged particles from the sun, ie: solar wind, solar flares, and CME's to name a few, interact with the ionosphere, and how the "weather" within the ionosphere then interacts with the lower levels of our atmosphere.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2022/sun/nasa-mission-finds-tonga-volcanic-eruption-effects-reached-space


If anyone is interested in getting their geek on this morning or this weekend give this a watch. Very interesting presentation of the science of tree ring data, ice ring data, ancient civilizations accounts of major global events and putting it all together to piece together what happened to the climate on a global scale around 535-545 AD.  Spoiler alert. It involves the impacts of Krakatoa, a notoriously violent volcano located along the equator; responsible for creating several of current Indonesian islands.  



I am going to also put this post in the weather education archives because I think regardless of how you feel about man made global warming; Mother Nature for sure still has her pulse on things, and the video really gives a well presented representation of one way in which she does. If anyone, mugs I know you likely have valuable links, has current links as well as future information that comes out discussing the effects of the Hunga-Tonga eruption on our planet please put them in the thread over in the education archive or put them here and I will put them there. Have a nice weekend everyone.

https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/news/the-hunga-tonga-hunga-haapai-eruption-multi-hazard-event