Influence of the Vongfong 2014 Hurricane on the Ionosphere and Geomagnetic Field as Detected by Swarm Satellites: 2. Geomagnetic Disturbances

Abstract

Strong meteorological disturbances in the atmosphere, accompanied by the generation of waves and turbulence, can affect ionospheric plasma and geomagnetic field. To search for these effects, we have analyzed electromagnetic measurement data from low-orbit Swarm satellites during flights over the typhoon Vongfong 2014. We have found that there are “magnetic ripples” in the upper ionosphere that are transverse to the main geomagnetic field fluctuations of small amplitude (0.5–1.5 nT) with a predominant period of about 10 s caused by small-scale longitudinal currents. Presumably, these quasiperiodic fluctuations are produced by the satellite’s passage through the quasiperiodic ionospheric structure with a characteristic scale of ~70 km induced by the interaction of acoustic waves excited by the typhoon with the E-layer of the ionosphere. In one of the flights over the typhoon, a burst of high-frequency noise (~0.3 Hz) was observed, which can be associated with the excitation of the ionospheric Alfven resonator by atmospheric turbulence.

Statistical Relationship of Ionospheric Disturbances Caused by Typhoon Extinction on the Sea

“…Those are consistent with the results of Martines‐Bedenko et al. (2019), suggesting that the disturbances observed by SWARM are indeed associated with typhoon.…”

“…Martines‐Bedenko et al. (2019) utilized SWARM data to study the frequency of magnetic disturbance caused by Vongfong (No. 1419).…”

Variability of Ionospheric Plasma: Results from the ESA Swarm Mission

“…They observed perturbations of the Rate of TEC Index (ROTI, which is the standard deviation of the rate of TEC (Pi et al 1997)), of ∼ 3.0 TECU/min in equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) at low latitudes and ∼ 1.5 TECU/min in medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (MSTIDs) at mid latitudes. Martines-Bedenko et al (2019) attributed variations in observations of the magnetic field from Swarm to be due to atmospheric waves excited by the Vongfong 2014 hurricane. Lühr et al (2016) deduced zonal currents in the F-layer inferred from the Swarm constellation, some of which were related to interhemispherical winds.…”

Geomagnetic Effect of the Atmospheric Acoustic Resonance Excited by Earthquakes and Volcano Eruptions

“…The eruption of the Tonga volcano in 2022 with an exceptional power yield and long duration stimulated a large number of atmospheric and ionospheric disturbances (Chen et al., 2022; Harding et al., 2022; Themens et al., 2022; Wright et al., 2022; Zhang et al., 2022). This eruption, accompanied by high lightning activity, led to the excitation of electromagnetic oscillations of different frequency ranges, from Schumann resonance (Mezentsev et al., 2023) and Hz‐pulsations (Martines‐Bedenko et al., 2023) to tens of minutes magnetic disturbances (Gavrilov et al., 2022). Localized geomagnetic Pc5 oscillations were recorded in the Pacific region after the onset of the Tonga volcano eruption at ∼800 km, which lasted for ∼1.5 hr (Yamazaki et al., 2022).…”