Tonga volcano eruption created puzzling ripples in Earth’s atmosphere

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Tonga eruption: we are watching for ripples of it in space
https://theconversation.com/tonga-erupti...ace-175132

EXCERPT: . . . It seems that the eruption also appears to have generated a series of so-called “atmospheric gravity waves”, which were detected by a Nasa satellite, radiating outwards from the volcano in concentric circles. Scientists, including me, are now looking to see what impact these waves may be having in space.

The purpose of our research is to better understand the top levels of the atmosphere, well above where the International Space Station (ISS) orbits, and in particular to what extent changes in it are driven by events on Earth (as opposed to the space environment). It could also help us better understand how technology such as GPS is affected by volcanic eruptions... (MORE - details)

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Tonga volcano eruption created puzzling ripples in Earth’s atmosphere
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00127-1

INTRO: Scientists are racing to understand a puzzling series of massive ripples in Earth’s atmosphere triggered by the eruption of the Tongan volcano at the weekend. Satellite data shows that the event — which some fear might have devastated the Pacific-island nation — provoked an unusual pattern of atmospheric gravity waves. Previous volcanic eruptions have not produced such a signal, leaving experts stumped.

“It’s really unique. We have never seen anything like this in the data before,” says Lars Hoffmann, an atmospheric scientist at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre in Germany.

The discovery was made in images collected by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), mounted on NASA’s Aqua satellite, in the hours after the eruption of the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai volcano on 14 January.

They show dozens of concentric circles, each representing a fast-moving wave in the gases of the atmosphere, stretching for more than 16,000 kilometres. The waves reached from the ocean surface to the ionosphere, and researchers think that they probably passed around the globe several times. (MORE - details)

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The Surprising Reach of Tonga’s Giant Atmospheric Waves
https://eos.org/articles/the-surprising-...eric-waves

EXCERPTS: The blast from a South Pacific volcano at Tonga was strong enough to jiggle the atmosphere from the surface to the ionosphere, according to preliminary analyses by scientists scattered around the world.

“This is something we have never seen in 20 years of AIRS data,” said Lars Hoffmann at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre in Germany, who analyzed atmospheric infrared sounder (AIRS) measurements from NASA’s Aqua satellite in the days after the blast.

The Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha‘apai eruption, which killed at least three and inflicted widespread damage, may be one of the most powerful eruptions of the past 30 years.

Atmospheric waves from the explosion shot across the globe in less than 24 hours. The waves even shifted local air pressure: In Seattle, the wave briefly lifted the city’s fog, said the local National Weather Service office.

The colossal detonation sent many types of waves through Earth’s atmosphere: infrasound waves, Lamb waves, acoustic-gravity waves, and signals from tsunamis across the Pacific Ocean.

While scientists are still parsing the eruption’s effects, the magnitude and extent of the waves reveal the explosive power of the volcano. “It’s this really almost unimaginable amount of energy,” said Mathew Barlow, a professor of environmental, Earth, and atmospheric sciences at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. “On the ground, this is a tragedy for Tonga.”

[...] Waves of this size come from nuclear detonations, huge eruptions, or meteors that explode in Earth’s atmosphere, according to research professor David Fee of the Geophysical Institute in Fairbanks, Alaska. NASA scientists estimated that the Tongan eruption was 500 times as powerful as the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.

Scientists at the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization registered the initial wave at all 53 of the organization’s infrasound international monitoring system stations. The stations are at distances ranging between 1,800 and 18,000 kilometers from the volcano, said the organization’s analysts. (The extent of the waves beat the last big atmospheric event to rattle Earth—the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor—which registered at only half of the organization’s stations.)

Shrewd observers noticed a perturbation in local pressure, too. “A number of places around the globe reported at least six returns of the wave signal,” Žagar said... (MORE - missing details)