There are submarine eruptions, and then the Tonga volcano eruption, which took place under the sea approximately 40-miles from the country’s main island, creating the tallest volcanic plume ever recorded. This event also marked the first time researchers recorded a volcanic plume reaching the mesosphere.
Volcanic plumes are typically estimated by simply measuring the temperature at its top and then cmopare it to the standard air temperatures at various altitudes. This is done because the troposphere, the lowest layer of the Earth’s atmosphere, temperature decreases with height. However, if there is a large eruption, the plume penetrates the higher layers of the atmosphere, making the normal method unreliable since air temperatures begin to increase again with height.
- BRIGHT, SHARP VIEWS ANYWHERE: Unlike many beginner telescopes, this quality refractor features fully coated glass lenses and a 70mm aperture for...
- PERFECT FIRST TELESCOPE FOR BEGINNERS: Designed for adults and kids to enjoy together, this beginner-friendly telescope sets up in minutes and...
- EASY NO-TOOL SETUP: No complicated assembly or tools needed. The full-height tripod and telescope tube set up in seconds and pack neatly into the...
Thirty years ago, when Pinatubo erupted, our satellites were nowhere near as good as they are now. They could only scan the earth every 30 minutes. Or maybe even every hour. We think for Pinatubo we actually missed the peak of the activity and the points where it went the highest: it fell between two of the satellite images and we missed it. In reality it probably went quite a bit higher than the estimates that we have for its height,” said Dr Simon Proud, a National Center for Earth Observation senior scientist at the University of Oxford.
