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Mesospheric Water Vapor in 2022
  • +4
  • Gerald E. Nedoluha,
  • R. Michael Gomez,
  • Ian Boyd,
  • Helen Neal,
  • Douglas Ray Allen,
  • Alyn Lambert,
  • Nathaniel J Livesey
Gerald E. Nedoluha
Naval Research Laboratory

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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R. Michael Gomez
Naval Research Laboratory
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Ian Boyd
Bryan Scientific Consulting
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Helen Neal
Bryan Scientific Consulting
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Douglas Ray Allen
Naval Research Lab
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Alyn Lambert
Jet Propulsion Lab (NASA)
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Nathaniel J Livesey
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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Abstract

The eruption of the Hunga Tonga undersea volcano in January 2022 injected water vapor to altitudes as high as 53 km, but also an unprecedented and much larger amount of water vapor into the stratosphere. Several months after the eruption, measurements from the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) and from three ground-based Water Vapor Millimeter Wave (WVMS) instruments began to measure record-high amounts of water vapor in the mesosphere over a wide range of latitudes. While there are indications that some of this mesospheric increase in water vapor was probably caused by the Hunga Tonga eruption, the dynamical situation in 2022 also played an important part in establishing the unusually large water vapor mixing ratios, both in the upper and lower mesosphere.
05 May 2023Submitted to ESS Open Archive
05 May 2023Published in ESS Open Archive