Large‐Scale Disturbances in the Upper Thermosphere Induced by the 2022 Tonga Volcanic Eruption

Abstract

The catastrophic eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano (20.54° S, 175.38° W, hereafter the Tonga volcano) at 04:14:45 UT 15 January 2022 released an estimated energy between 10 and 28 EJ into the atmosphere, which is believed to be the largest since the 1883 Krakatoa eruption (Wright et al., 2022). The extreme eruption not only triggered earthquakes and tsunamis, but also caused significant disturbances in the upper atmosphere

Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances Induced by the Secondary Gravity Waves From the Tonga Eruption on 15 January 2022: Modeling With MESORAC‐HIAMCM‐SAMI3 and Comparison With GPS/TEC and Ionosonde Data

“…They concluded that the GWs observed by ICON-MIGHTI were secondary GWs excited by the spatially and temporally-localized body forces/heatings created by the dissipation of primary GWs from Tonga, and were therefore not thermospheric GWs forced by the leakage of stratospheric LWs. Li et al (2023) recently investigated the neutral density in the thermosphere at z ∼ 500 km observed by the GRACE-FO and Swarm-C satellites after the Tonga eruption. They observed three thermospheric waves that propagated concentrically across the globe, with two of them reaching the antipode.…”

Multi‐Layer Evolution of Acoustic‐Gravity Waves and Ionospheric Disturbances Over the United States After the 2022 Hunga Tonga Volcano Eruption

“…Due to the spatial and temporal limitations of observations investigated, we do not address all aspects of variability nor all observed fluctuations, for example, those at longer (hours) periods and thousands of km of horizontal spatial scales that may also be present (Harding et al, 2022). Although not affecting our conclusions, we would like to note that these fluctuations could potentially results as effects from primary or secondary gravity waves, generated by atmospheric sources (Li et al, 2023;Vadas et al, 2023b), or by forcing from direct tsunami or tsunami evolving with Lamb wave modes (Munaibari et al, 2023;Pradipta et al, 2023).…”

“…The only time window without coherent propagating TID dynamics was between 16 and 17:30 UT, with mostly chaotic patterns of TID fluctuations in different directions, some of them potentially not related to AGWs from the volcano eruptions (Figures 9g and 9h). We also point to a potential overlay of some TIDs generated by AGWs modulated in the upper atmosphere or evolving with Lamb wave modes, and TIDs generated by secondary gravity waves (Vadas et al, 2023a(Vadas et al, , 2023b, or gravity waves induced from tsunamis (Li et al, 2023;Pradipta et al, 2023) to the Pacific Ocean at the time of the leading TID arrivals at ∼11:50 UT. For reference, we provide the same diagrams as Figure 10e, but for 14-18 January in Text S3.1 in Supporting Information S1 and we find no such dynamics during days other than 15 January.…”

“…Estimated as a megatons-equivalent event (Matoza et al, 2022;Vergoz et al, 2022), the eruptions generated a very broad spectrum of waves that propagated globally over several days (S.-R. . The reports suggest complex and nonlinear AGW dynamics in the atmosphere, impacting the state of the stratosphere (Khaykin et al, 2022;Millan et al, 2022) and ionosphere (Astafyeva et al, 2022;Harding et al, 2022;He et al, 2023;Li et al, 2023;Vadas et al, 2023a), generating effects locally and in the magnetically-conjugate ionosphere via coupling through the plasmasphere (Aa et al, 2022a;Harding et al, 2022;Lin et al, 2022). Nevertheless, there is still a lack of understanding of the generation and evolutions of various wave modes and, especially, of their observable effects on the upper layers of the atmosphere and ionosphere.…”

Quiet Time Thermospheric Gravity Waves Observed by GOCE and CHAMP

“…Low Earth orbit (LEO) missions such as CHAMP, GOCE, and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) have provided unprecedented accuracy and resolution in density and cross‐track wind measurements (Doornbos, 2012). Previous studies have detected TADs, which include GWs, using accelerometer data onboard several spacecrafts (e.g., Bruinsma & Forbes, 2008; Li et al., 2023; H. Liu et al., 2017; Park et al., 2014, 2023; Trinh et al., 2018). However, due to the absence of along‐track wind measurements, these studies have primarily focused on either density or cross‐track wind disturbances along the satellite track.…”