Mysterious Wave Appears in the Atmosphere After the Tonga Eruption, What Is It? page all

KOMPAS.com – Ripples appeared in the atmosphere after the underwater volcanic eruption of Tonga on Saturday (15/1/2022).

Until now, researchers still can not understand the ripples of these atmospheric waves.

Launch Nature, satellite data show the eruption of Tonga has triggered unusual atmospheric gravitational waves never seen in another volcanic eruption.

“This is really unique. We’ve never seen data like this before,” said Lars Hoffmann, an Atmospheric Scientist at Germany’s Jülich Supercomputing Center.

The findings were collected in image form by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), mounted on NASA’s Aqua satellite, hours after the eruption. Tonga Mountain.

The collected images show that there are many concentric circles.

The circle indicates the presence of waves moving rapidly in the atmosphere as far as 16,000 kilometers.

“This tool has been in operation for about 20 years and we’ve never seen such a fine concentric wave pattern,” Hoffman said.

Also read: The Impact of a Volcanic Eruption, Tongans Can Be Without Communication for Weeks

Gravity waves

The researchers say, theoretically the flow of hot air and volcanic ash moving rapidly into the atmosphere could trigger the formation of large-scale gravitational waves.

However, this wave has never been seen by researchers.

“It confused us. It must have something to do with the physics of what’s going on, but we don’t know what yet,” said University of Bath atmospheric physicist Corwin Wright.

However, he and his colleagues suspect that a large pile of hot gas scattered in the atmosphere may have triggered the wave.

The hot gas rises high into the stratosphere and hits the air around it.

Wright, who was the first to discover wave patterns, said the waves seen on satellites were of various types and sizes.

Oxford University Climate Scientist Scott Osprey said Tonga’s eruption was going very fast faster than any other eruption.

Therefore, the appearance of a wave image that has never been seen appears.

Also read: 5 Things to Know About Underwater Volcano Eruptions in Tonga

Osprey warned, the eruption may indeed only occur for a few moments.

However, the impact can last a long time.

“Tonga eruption appears to have ended in a few minutes, but the explosion was likely to trigger some strong gravitational waves,” he said.

His side is concerned that the gravitational waves that exist could disrupt the wind reversal cycle in the tropics.

In addition, there is the possibility of influencing weather patterns as far as Europe.

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