Dresden 2026 – scientific programme
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UP: Fachverband Umweltphysik
UP 6: Upper Atmosphere, Polar Chemistry and Volcanic Aerosols
UP 6.5: Talk
Wednesday, March 11, 2026, 10:30–10:45, MER/0002
How long does H2O from a strong tropical volcanic eruption need to reach the polar summer mesopause? — •Sandra Wallis1, Hauke Schmidt2, and Christian von Savigny1 — 1University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany — 2Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany
It is assumed that the historic 1883 Krakatoa volcanic eruption emitted a large amount of water vapour into the tropical middle atmosphere (20 - 100 km). According to a prominent hypothesis, this volcanic water vapour might have been transported to the polar summer mesopause resulting in the first ever sighting of noctilucent clouds (NLC) two years later. This discussion was recently revived after the 2022 Hunga eruption. We used simulations from the Hamburg Model of the Neutral and Ionized Atmosphere (HAMMONIA) to determine the transport time of water vapour from the tropics to the summer polar mesopause for different volcanic injection seasons and heights. The results suggest that a 1.5 to 2 year transport time period is plausible, strengthening the Krakatoa-NLC hypothesis.
Keywords: mesosphere; noctilucent clouds; volcanic eruption; water vapour; model simulation