Multiwave Structure of Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances Excited by the Tonga Volcanic Eruptions Observed by a Dense GNSS Network in China

Abstract

We used dense global navigation satellite system data from China to track the propagation of traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) triggered by the 2022 January 15 Tonga volcanic eruption. We identified two TIDs originating from the eruption. One, which has been reported widely by a number of recent investigations, had a velocity of ∼361 m/s. However, another long‐distance propagating TID with a velocity of ∼264 m/s has not been widely discussed. The velocities of these TIDs coincide with previous simulation results of gravity‐wave L0 and L1 modes. We propose that these TIDs were caused by the L0 and L1 ducted modes of gravity waves excited by the volcanic eruption. However, the L1 mode is usually negligible due to its weak amplitude in comparison with that of the L0 mode. The enormous energy release resulted in a stronger amplitude of the L1 mode, which induced a detectable TID in the ionosphere.

Atmospheric and Ionospheric Responses to Hunga‐Tonga Volcano Eruption Simulated by WACCM‐X

“…These features, including the initial transient perturbations with large phase speeds and amplitudes, agree with observational analysis (Aa et al., 2022; Themens et al., 2022; Zhang et al., 2022). The L’ 1 mode is also identified from GNSS TEC analysis (Li et al., 2023).…”

Simulation study of atmosphere–ionosphere variations driven by the eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai on 15 January 2022

“…Numerous observational studies have already been done about the HTHH volcanic eruption event, and various important phenomena in the study of the atmospheric and ionospheric disturbances have been discovered: (1) Lamb waves and gravity waves concentrically propagating from the HTHH volcano (Amores et al 2022;Matoza et al 2022;Nishikawa et al 2022;Omira et al 2022;Suzuki et al 2023;Tanioka et al 2022;Watanabe et al 2022;Wright et al 2022;Yamada et al 2022;Madonia et al 2023); (2) traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) associated with atmospheric waves triggered by the eruption (e.g., Saito 2022; Zhang et al 2022;Shinbori et al 2022;Chen et al 2022;Ghent and Crowell 2022;Themens et al (2022); Lin et al 2022;Verhulst et al 2022;Li et al 2023b;Heki 2022;Han et al 2023;Liu et al 2023b); (3) significant variations in total electron content (TEC) near the eruption region (Aa et al 2022a;Astafyeva et al 2022;Sun et al 2022b;He et al 2023); (4) TIDs in the magnetically conjugate region connected with HTHH region possibly driven by the electric field (e.g., Saito 2022; Shinbori et al 2022;Lin et al 2022); (5) short-period oscillations in the geomagnetic field (e.g., Iyemori et al 2022;Yamazaki et al 2022;Schnepf et al 2022;Zhang et al 2022;Kong et al 2022); (6) global thermospheric wind variations after the eruption (e.g., Harding et al 2022;Li et al 2023a...…”

The possible connection of the large ozone hole in September 2023 with the Hunga Tonga volcanic eruption

“…The volcanic ash reached over 30 km, and the transient overshoot even reached the mesosphere (Proud et al, 2022). Various wave signatures have been identified in the upper atmosphere, affecting thermospheric wind, ionospheric equatorial electrojet (Harding et al, 2022;Le et al, 2022), ionospheric plasma drift, Total Electron Content (TEC) (Aa et al, 2022;Themens et al, 2022;Zhang et al, 2022), and including Travelling Ionospheric Disturbances (TIDs) (Chen et al, 2023a, Vadas et al, 2023, Liu et al, 2023a with their multi-wave structure (Li et al, 2023), as well as signatures at magnetically conjugate locations (Lin et al, 2022;Shinbori et al, 2022). Madonia et al (2023) described the propagation of corresponding disturbances in the lower and upper atmosphere over the Central Mediterranean area.…”