Weather of Arabia - In 1991, the "Pinatubo" volcano in the Philippines erupted, one of the most powerful volcanoes in the modern era. With its eruption, the volcano released huge amounts of sulfur dioxide (SO2) into the atmosphere, which affected the Earth's climate for two consecutive years.
It is believed that this had a direct impact on the countries of the Middle East, and this was represented by polar depressions and unusually frequent snowfalls, according to Arab weather data. Will the recent explosion of the Tonga volcano cause the global cooling phenomenon caused by volcanoes, and directly affect the Eastern Mediterranean countries, here is the explanation in the following article.
The Tonga volcano erupted on January 15, 2022, releasing a huge column of smoke and ash that covered most of the country, and caused a tsunami that caused more damage to this Pacific island nation. The explosion produced a shock wave that led to a disturbance in atmospheric pressure values around the world.
The local government described the blast as an "unprecedented disaster", although they had difficulty determining the full extent of the damage as the blast isolated the country after it cut undersea telecommunications cables and ash forced Tonga's airports to close.
The force of the eruption is partly related to the location of the volcano, which is located at a shallow depth (about 200 meters under water), and when superheated magma collides with sea water, the water instantly turns into steam (gas), which multiplies the force of the eruption several times, albeit even deeper. much, to enable the water pressure to reduce the explosion.
There are a number of direct and secondary effects. First, the volcanic smoke plume rose to about 30 kilometers, and reached the stratosphere, the second layer in the atmosphere, which is located above the layer where the vagaries of weather occur, has been spotted satellites operated with the Weather Arab Center for the power explosion and volcanic cloud , and during the smoke and its extension high The atmosphere produced a large number of lightning flashes amounting to 400,000 flashes within a few hours.
This massive rise of the smoke plume injected huge amounts of volcanic material into the stratosphere, including sulfur dioxide (SO2), a gas that has significant climatic effects, as SO2 reflects solar radiation away from the Earth, and thus can have a cooling effect on The climate system, especially when volcanic eruptions are in the tropics, where the bulk of the Earth's incoming solar radiation is absorbed.
Preliminary estimates followed by the Arab Weather Center indicate that sulfur dioxide emissions were much less than what happened in some other major historical volcanic eruptions, including the Pinatubo volcano in the Philippines and El Chichón in Mexico. We see fewer climate impacts.
When the Pinatubo volcano in the Philippines erupted in 1991, it lasted for several days, sending about 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere. There, the gas combines with water to form aerosol particles that reflect and scatter some sunlight, preventing it from reaching For the Earth's surface, this cooled the atmosphere by about half a degree Celsius for several years.
And satellite images have monitored the movement of dense clouds of sulfur dioxide, SO2, to large areas of the Indian Ocean (picture below).
The cloud of volcanic ash/gas (appears green/yellow) produced by Saturday's eruption in Tonga now extends over the Indian Ocean. It's being carried by easterly winds in the stratosphere. pic.twitter.com/O4PpscNtgq
— Andrew Miskelly (@andrewmiskelly) January 19, 2022
The massive shock wave resulting from the explosion of the Tonga volcano compressed the air in the atmosphere and spread at the speed of sound and traveled around the world at least twice. The pressure wave was clear in the form of a rise and then a decrease in atmospheric pressure readings. In the world this disturbance in atmospheric pressure several times, as the wave traveled east and west, crossed the world and returned. The eruption of Krakatoa in 1883 produced similar shock waves, but this time in the era of high-resolution satellites that captured the wave's progression in stunning detail.
Corwin Wright, an atmospheric physicist at the University of Bath in England, said the explosion produced an atmospheric shock wave that was one of the most unusual ever detected. Satellite readings showed that the wave reached far beyond the stratosphere, up to 60 miles high, and spread around the world at more than 600 miles per hour.
The following image shows that the shock wave continues to rotate around the world even 7 days after the explosion:
It is amazing that after 7 days the #Tonga #eruption shock wave continues to circle the planet (10 times!) and can still be detected in the infrared by geostationary satellites such as #GOES16 and #GOES17 . @matplotlib @xarray_dev @Satellite_GOES pic.twitter.com/1dSYZMdlGT
— diego aliaga (@diegoaliaga2) January 24, 2022
The force of the explosion displaced huge amounts of air high in the atmosphere, but then gravity pulled it down, then rose again, and this oscillation continued up and down, creating a wave of alternating pressure in the air pressure going up and down.
This atmospheric pressure wave may also have played a role in the unusual tsunami.
Tsunamis are generated by rapid displacement of water, usually by movement of rocks and soil. Large underwater faults can also generate tsunamis when they move and cause an earthquake.
Volcanoes can also cause tsunamis. In this case, the underwater eruption and collapse of the crater may have caused the displacement of a quantity of water and the occurrence of a tsunami, but according to scientists this will only explain the occurrence of the local tsunami that engulfed Tonga, as this energy fades with distance.
But this event triggered tsunamis of roughly the same size as the local wave, over the course of many hours, in Japan, Chile, and the west coast of the United States, and eventually caused small tsunamis in other basins elsewhere around the world.
This is a sign that as the shock wave traveled through the atmosphere, it affected the ocean water causing it to sway as well.
Although the eruption of the Tonga volcano was the largest volcanic eruption in the world in three decades, it is unlikely that it will have a temporary cooling effect on the global climate, as was the case with massive eruptions in the past, but there may be short-term effects on the weather in parts of the world and possibly slight disturbances in radio transmission, including those used in Global Positioning Systems (GPS).
Dr. Wright said that although the wave occurred high up in the atmosphere, it could have a short-term effect on weather patterns closer to the surface, possibly indirectly by affecting the jet stream.
Specialists in the Arab Weather Center indicate that the weather patterns in the northern hemisphere have changed suddenly and rapidly after the volcano and in a manner similar to the same effects that occurred in the past following the eruption of powerful volcanoes, such as those that occurred in the winter of 1991/1992, after the eruption of a volcano "Pinatubo" mentioned above.
And specialists in the Arab Weather Center say that far in mid-January 2022 (that is, after the volcanic eruption in Tonga), the formation of very strong air altitudes was observed in the west and southwest of the European continent, causing an unusually stable atmosphere in those areas, and Those strong air heights forced the air masses rushing from the North Pole (polar air masses) to rotate around those heights one by one and rush to the regions of southeastern Europe and the Middle East regions in a scene very similar to what happened in the winter of 1991/1992.
Those polar eruptions caused historical snow storms on the Turkish, Greek and Balkan lands, and the Middle East regions were affected by severe cold waves, and snow fell in many areas, including desert areas such as northern Saudi Arabia and the Sinai Peninsula, in addition to several parts of the country. Sham.
The specialists in the Arab Weather Center believe that this change in weather patterns and successive polar eruptions cannot be considered irrefutable evidence that it is due to the volcano, but they expressed their astonishment at the reversal of the winter season in the regions of the Arab Mashreq, from a dormant winter with few rainy and snowy activities to a winter season. It is very active and much colder than normal rates, which in turn raises their suspicion that the volcano may have a direct or indirect impact on these sudden changes.
This supports these suspicions, that the air maps of simulating the movements of air masses in the northern hemisphere, which are being conducted (simulation procedure) via super-powerful computers in global climate centers, still indicate the continued control of several unusually high altitudes in large areas of the The European continent in a way that leads to the continued influence of the Middle East and southeast of the European continent by more cold polar eruptions, which may eventually lead to the occurrence of several rain and snow cases in the region and the continued dominance of colder than usual weather.
And the specialists in the center add that, if the situation continues as it is in March 2022 and also in the spring of this year, it will undoubtedly be that this volcano has upset the scales and directly affected the weather and climate of the ball ground, albeit for a relatively short period of time.
Going back to the effects of the Pinatubo volcano in 1991, countries around the world have experienced dramatic changes in weather patterns in the years since this massive eruption. In the winter of 1991/1992, the regions of the Arab Mashreq, including the Levant, were affected by a series similar to polar and snow storms that became entrenched in the memory of many residents of these regions to the point of calling that year (the year of the seven snows) in the Levant, and it became a defining point of history in seasons winter.
The temperature of the globe as a whole decreased for two years after this volcano, and global warming slowed down significantly for several years, although, for example, many European countries have suffered from drought and a rise in temperatures above average, but at the same time this led to the travel of polar masses It is far from its usual habitat and has approached many times to areas close to the equator.
And in the summer of the Southern Hemisphere (1991/1992) Australia experienced a remarkable drop in summer temperatures to the extent that some locals called it (the year that came without a summer) in those areas.
When looking at the weather conditions in the Australian continent at these times (summer 2021/2022), we find that the summer of this year in those areas began to be unusually hot, but after the recent volcanic eruption in Tonga, the weather patterns there changed to become summer there. Acceptable and with temperatures cooler than average, which increases the hypothesis that this massive volcano has actually affected the weather around the world in a way that is very similar to the effects of the Pinatubo volcano in 1991.
It is worth noting that another volcano that caused a noticeable climate change was in 1982, which is the volcano "El Chichón" in Mexico in Mexico. Big with those that occurred in the winter of 1991/1992, where the winter of 1982/1983 came cold and snowy in the Middle East and southeast of the European continent, and the concentration of strong air altitudes on the European continent, which reinforces the assumptions that these volcanoes have a direct impact on climatic and weather patterns In the globe in a similar way, which also affects in a similar way the weather in the Middle East and the Levant, if it occurs.
The only thing that proves the hypothesis that the Tonga volcano has actually worked on a micro-climate change and affected the weather patterns for this year is time. What will happen in the coming days will support or refute these theories and hypotheses, and at the same time, many scientists and activists about The globe at these times is studying whether this volcano has actually affected weather patterns or not.
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