Detecting the 2022 January 15 Hunga Tonga–Hunga–Ha'apai volcanic eruption (SW Pacific) high up in the sky through 'ionospheric resonance'. Issue 2 (10th December 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kundu, Bhaskar; Senapati, Batakrushna; Bürgmann, Roland; Ray, Sayak
• Is Part Of: Geophysical journal international. Volume 233:Issue 2(2023)
• Page Start: 922
• Page End: 931
• Publication Date: 2022-12-10
• Subjects: Ionosphere/atmosphere interactions -- Acoustic-gravity waves -- Pacific Ocean -- Atmospheric effects (volcano) -- Hunga Tonga–Hunga–Ha'apai volcanic eruption -- Ionospheric resonance; Geophysics -- Periodicals; 550
• DOI: 10.1093/gji/ggac492
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0956-540X

Abstract

SUMMARY: We report a mode of ionospheric resonance induced by the 2022 January 15, Hunga Tonga–Hunga–Ha'apai volcanic eruption, captured globally through ground-based Global Navigation Satellite Systems networks. In the near-field region, we observe a strong ionospheric disturbance in the total electron content, including contributions from acoustic and gravity waves. In contrast, propagation of gravity waves, seismic airwaves diffracted by topographic barriers and/or atmospheric Lamb waves can be documented for far-field ionospheric disturbances. Specifically, the atmospheric wave propagation towards the Hawaii Islands involved three distinct modes of ionospheric perturbation through Rayleigh, gravity and atmospheric Lamb waves. Further, we also noted that the peak-to-peak amplitude of the disturbance reached ∼ 8.7 per cent of the background electrons, which is significantly higher than the recent volcanic explosions in the Japanese Islands and the 2020 chemical explosion in Beirut. The ionospheric total electron content perturbations can provide important information about the volcanic source, hence they could be useful as a measure of eruption intensity and for real-time hazard monitoring.