Japan Geoscience Union Meeting 2022

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[U-09] Submarine volcanic eruption in Tonga accompanied by a meteo-tsunami

Mon. May 30, 2022 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM Online Poster Zoom Room (40) (Ch.40)

convener:Toshiyuki Hibiya(Department of Earth and Planetary Science, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo), convener:Fukashi Maeno(Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo), convener:Kensuke Nakajima(Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences,Flculty of Sciences,Kyushu University), convener:Yoshihiko Tamura(Research Institute for Marine Geodynamics, Japan Agency for Maine-Earth Science and Technology), Chairperson:Toshiyuki Hibiya(Department of Ocean Sciences, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology), Fukashi Maeno(Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo), Kensuke Nakajima(Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences,Flculty of Sciences,Kyushu University), Yoshihiko Tamura(Research Institute for Marine Geodynamics, Japan Agency for Maine-Earth Science and Technology)

11:00 AM - 1:00 PM

[U09-P24] Estimation of the Tonga plume-top height using parallax from geostationary meteorological satellites

*Kazuya Yamazaki1, Taiga Tsukada2 (1.Graduate School of Science, the University of Tokyo, 2.Graduate School of Environmental Science, Hokkaido University)

Keywords:Plume-top height, Meteorological satellite, Parallax

The plume top height of the major eruption at Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai on January 15, 2022 was estimated using two geostationary meteorological satellites: Himawari-8 operated by Japan and GOES-17 by the U.S. These satellites observe the Tonga region from highly different angles, creating significant parallax in the observed image for objects in high altitudes. By measuring the parallax in these images both manually and automatically, spatial distribution of the plume top height was estimated every 10 minutes. Results indicate that the umbrella cloud reached nearly 40 km above sea level, descending to 30 km in 3 hours. The altitude of the overshooting top briefly reached around 56 km, entering the lower mesosphere. A web-based tool to conduct the manual estimation is published at https://weather-models.info/news/20220115HungaTonga/parallax/. Those results, combined with dynamic plume simulations, would significantly constrain physical parameters of the mass ejection, helping understand the dynamics of the eruption.