NASA scientists say the violent eruption of the Tonga volcano will inject an unprecedented amount of water directly into the atmosphere's stratosphere, and the vapor will stay in the stratosphere for years, likely affecting Earth's climate patterns.

　　According to the National Public Radio (NPR) report on August 3, the Tonga volcano erupted on January 15 this year, and the ash and gas that rushed into the sky also ejected about 146 billion kilograms of water into the atmospheric stratosphere, equivalent to 58,000 The capacity of an Olympic-sized swimming pool, or about 10% of the total water content of the stratosphere.

Data map: News on January 19, 2022, recently, more shocking pictures of the eruption of the Tonga volcano taken from the sea were released.

The group of photos released by the Latin America News Agency showed that the volcano spewed a large amount of smoke and ash that continued to spread above and outside the island.

The eruption also triggered a tsunami that affected several countries and regions along the Pacific coast.

　　Data for the study came from the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) aboard NASA's Aura satellite, which measures water vapor, ozone, aerosols and gases in Earth's atmosphere.

"We've never seen anything like this," said Luis Milan, an atmospheric scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

　　The Tonga volcano sent ash, gas and water vapor into the atmosphere after it erupted on January 15 this year.

This was one of the strongest volcanic eruptions ever recorded, causing an atmospheric shock wave that circled the earth four times, and the eruption plume was more than 50 kilometers high.

The violent eruption brought pressure waves around the Earth and caused a sonic boom as far away as Alaska, 10,000 kilometers away.

　　This eruption affects the climate in a different way than previous large volcanic eruptions.

Volcanic eruptions affect climate, often cooling temperatures because they send light-scattering aerosols into the stratosphere.

These aerosols act as a kind of giant sunscreen.

But the Tonga eruption could temporarily raise the temperature a bit, as water vapour traps heat, the researchers said.

　　Sulfate aerosols from volcanoes typically take around 2-3 years to fall from the stratosphere.

But the water from the Jan. 15 eruption could take 5-10 years to dissipate completely.

　　The Jan. 15 eruption dramatically disrupted annual water patterns in the stratosphere, which is also home to most of the ozone in the atmosphere, the researchers said.

January is usually the middle of a dry period in this seasonal cycle, but then the Tonga volcano erupted in the South Pacific, suddenly pumping a lot of water high into the sky.

　　They recommend closely monitoring the water produced by volcanic eruptions, both to predict its impact in the near term and to better understand how future volcanic eruptions might affect Earth's climate.

　　The Paper reporter Nan Boyi intern Aizhaier