Detection of Air Temperature and Wind Changes Synchronized With the Lamb Wave From the 2022 Tonga Volcanic Eruption

Abstract

The explosive 2022 Tonga submarine volcanic eruption produced a globally propagated atmospheric disturbance. A leading Lamb wave pulse was recorded as a pressure pulse worldwide. A weather-station network in Japan recorded the pressure pulse together with temperature and wind conditions during the passage of the pulse. Individual temperature and wind records indicate little simultaneous change. However, after alignment of records at the time of pressure pulse arrivals and stacking, clear temperature and wind changes synchronized with the pressure change are evident. Assuming Lamb wave propagation, the synthesized temperature and wind changes from the pressure record show a good match with the observed waveforms. The observed wind speed and pressure change of the Lamb pulse yielded a total energy transported by the pulse of 4.2 × 1016 J.