Tonga eruption had a massive impact comparable to a solar storm

Data received from more than five thousand ground-based receivers of the Global Navigation Satellite System

(GNSS), confirmed the presence of atmospheric waves,caused by the eruption of the Tonga volcano. Traces of the impact of these waves were recorded in the ionosphere at an altitude of about 300 km above sea level for four days. The wave caused by the eruption circled the Earth three times.

As previously reported, measurementsGlobal Differential Global Positioning System (GDGPS) operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a powerful underwater volcanic eruption caused fluctuations in the Earth's ionosphere.

Scientists from the Massachusetts ObservatoryInstitute of Technology believe that the disturbance in the ionosphere arose due to the influence of Lamb waves. These are waves propagating in an elastic medium and formed by a combination of standing and traveling waves. The Lamb waves caused by the eruption moved at the speed of sound around the Earth without reducing the amplitude of the oscillations.

Traveling ionospheric disturbances from GNSS data. The horizontal axis shows time, the vertical axis shows distance. Image: MIT

The researchers note that although the Lamb wavespropagate near the Earth's surface, they can exchange energy with the ionosphere. It was previously assumed that similar waves caused by the massive eruption of the Krakatau volcano in 1883 could have an impact on the ionosphere. However, scientists emphasize, only now it was possible to obtain the first evidence of the long-term influence of such waves on the Earth's ionosphere.

“It is known that only strong solar stormscause global traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) that persist for several hours or days. Volcanic eruptions usually cause disturbances only within a radius of several thousand km. says Shunron Zhang, one of the co-authors of the study. “Having discovered global TIDs in space at a great distance from the Earth's surface, we not only showed the influence of Lamb waves, but also revealed a fundamentally new physical process. It turns out that signals from the lower atmosphere can cause serious fluctuations even in deep space.”

Scientists said they will continue to monitor the effects that the eruption of the Tonga volcano will have on space weather.

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