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CubeSat GPS observation of traveling ionospheric disturbance after the 2022 Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha'apai volcanic eruption and its potential use for tsunami warning

Presented by:

Shin-Chan Han

Simon McClusky

Geoscience Australia

 

Dylan Mikesell

Norwegian Geotechnical Institute

 

Paul Tregoning

Australian National University

 

Jeanne Sauber

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

 

Emile Okal

Northwestern University

Tsunami can be an immensely destructive geohazard as seen from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed nearly a quarter of a million people in a single incident. Unlike earthquakes or volcanoes, tsunamis can be forecast; here, warning time is the most critical factor to save people and resources. To increase the lead time for warning, this study suggests a disruptive idea of identifying geohazards better and faster than the current ground-based systems. Our idea is to detect the atmospheric waves propagating faster than tsunami waves from a constellation ('network') of CubeSats equipped with GPS receivers. We present the observations of the travelling ionospheric disturbance (TID) all around the world after the Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha'apai volcanic eruption on 15th of January, 2022. We discuss the results of the speed and spatial extent of the atmospheric disturbance from processing of a number of CubeSat GPS data and how much time the orbital TID detection can increase warning time for tsunami in comparison to the ground based measurements. Finally, we propose a new mission of utilising the atmosphere as a global sensing system for rapid detection of geohazard and extreme weather events, advanced early warning, and disaster risk reduction, by exploiting dense intersatellite links between GNSS/GPS and nanosatellite constellations.

Category:

GNSS and applications (incl GPS)

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