Responses of the AC/DC Global Electric Circuit to Volcanic Electrical Activity in the Hunga Tonga‐Hunga Ha'apai Eruption on 15 January 2022
Name
JGR Atmospheres - 2023 - Bór - Responses of the AC DC Global Electric Circuit to Volcanic Electrical Activity in the Hunga.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
1.99 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
9e01a899c24f10cdeff544d7945c8ef6
Author(s)
Bór, J
Bozóki, T
Sátori, G
Williams, E
Behnke, SA
Rycroft, MJ
Buzás, A
Silva, HG
Kubicki, M
Said, R
Date Issued
March 31, 2023
Journal
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
Citation
Bór, J., Bozóki, T., Sátori, G., Williams, E., Behnke, S. A., Rycroft, M. J., et al. (2023). Responses of the AC/DC global electric circuit to volcanic electrical activity in the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai eruption on 15 January 2022. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 128, e2022JD038238.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Responses of the AC and DC global electric circuits (GECs) to the large eruption of the Hunga Tonga‐Hunga Ha'apai (HT‐HH) volcano on 15 January 2022 are discussed. The AC‐related investigation is based on Schumann resonance (SR) measurements from six stations on four continents. The DC‐related investigation utilizes atmospheric electric field (potential gradient, PG) measurements from six recording stations in Europe and the USA. According to data from the GLD360 and WWLLN lightning detection networks, the peak lightning stroke rate, 83/s, was dominated by negative polarity lightning, but the distributions of positive and negative lightning discharges in latitude and longitude around the volcano differed. A global intensification of SR is apparent in connection with the enhanced lightning activity caused by the eruption. SR data‐based results confirm that the lightning activity in the eruption dominated the naturally occurring global activity for a period of about 1 hr. The highly localized increase in lightning activity over HT‐HH was a unique point source of SR excitation. PG measurements suggest that impulse‐like charging of the DC GEC, by ∼15%, via negative cloud‐to‐ground lightning strokes took place twice during the eruption. A time constant of 7 or 8 min has been inferred for near‐surface PG changes due to these enhancements. This could be the first direct measurement of the time constant of the GEC near the Earth's surface, as well as the first observation of the direct charging of the DC GEC by a unique atmospheric electrified source.
MIT Department
Parsons Laboratory for Environmental Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1029/2022jd038238
