An Investigation on the Ionospheric Response to the Volcanic Explosion of Hunga Ha’apai, 2022, Based on the Observations from the Meridian Project: The Plasma Drift Variations

Abstract

The Hunga Ha’apai volcano eruption (20.536°S, 175.382°W in Tonga) reached its maximum outbreak on 15 January 2022, at 04:15 UT, leading to huge oceanic fluctuations and atmospheric disturbances. This study focuses on the response of the ionosphere to the eruption of Tonga volcano, based on observations from a low-latitude station of the Meridian Project at Fuke, Hainan (19.310°N, 109.080°E). We identified the anomalies in the plasma drift caused by the volcanic eruption and discussed the possible mechanisms. The following results were obtained: (1) The anomalies of ionospheric plasma drift were observed at Fuke Station, during the main eruption; (2) A sudden increase and inversion of the plasma drift velocity occurred on January 15, and a large fluctuation of the drift velocity occurred afterwards; (3) By comparing the anomalous propagation velocity with the background drift, it was confirmed that the anomaly was the response of the low latitude ionosphere to the Tonga volcano eruption. Furthermore, we analyzed a possible mechanism for the effect of volcanic eruptions on ionospheric plasma drift. A large number of charged particles could be brought out by the explosion to generate an atmospheric electric field, which may cause the ionospheric plasma to change its original motion.

The impact of the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai volcanic eruption on the Peruvian atmosphere: from the sea surface to the ionosphere

“…Atmospheric pressure disturbances traveled in the form of Lamb waves and surrounded the Earth several times. The volcano eruption can produce effects in the lower atmosphere (varying atmospheric pressure), in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) region (modifying neutral winds), as well as in the ionosphere (perturbing the horizontal magnetic field component-H, the vertical plasma drifts, the equatorial electrojet-EEJ, and the virtual height of the ionograms) (Poblet et al 2023;Stober et al 2023;Schnepf et al 2022;Le et al 2022;Sun et al 2022;Li et al 2023;Harding et al 2022;Qiu et al 2023).…”