Tongan volcanic eruption induced global-scale thermospheric changes observed by the GOLD mission

The 2022 Tongan volcanic eruption released significant energy into the atmosphere. Tropospheric satellite images show that the eruption generated pressure waves that traveled globally. The Global Observation of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission observed significant wave-like thermospheric temperature perturbations (>100 K) from 12 to 16 UT. These temperature perturbations' spatial curvatures and arrival times are initially similar to the tropospheric wave-fronts but differ significantly with eastward propagation. The perturbations had a phase speed of similar to 300-400 m/s and wavelengths greater than 2,400 km. Near-concurrent Ionospheric Connection Explorer neutral wind measurements suggest that the eruption's effects reversed the direction of the prevailing thermospheric zonal winds around the perturbed regions. The eruption's global and whole atmospheric effects provide a unique opportunity to study how different atmospheric layers exchange energy and momentum during explosive events. GOLD's synoptic observations are uniquely positioned to study these effects in the middle thermosphere.

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Related Dataset #1 : Numerical simulation "Numerical simulation of atmospheric Lamb waves generated by the 2022 Hunga-Tonga volcanic eruption"

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Author Aryal, S.
Gan, Q.
Evans, J.
Laskar, F.
Karan, D.
Cai, X.
Greer, K.
Wang, Wenbin
McClintock, W.
Eastes, R.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2023-06-28T00:00:00
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Not Assigned
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Topic Category geoscientificInformation
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Metadata Date 2025-07-11T15:16:53.924652
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:26688
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Aryal, S., Gan, Q., Evans, J., Laskar, F., Karan, D., Cai, X., Greer, K., Wang, Wenbin, McClintock, W., Eastes, R.. (2023). Tongan volcanic eruption induced global-scale thermospheric changes observed by the GOLD mission. UCAR/NCAR - Library. https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7xd15qh. Accessed 02 August 2025.

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