Observations of ionospheric disturbances associated with the 2020 Beirut explosion by Defense Meteorological Satellite Program and ground-based ionosondes
{"title":"Observations of ionospheric disturbances associated with the 2020 Beirut explosion by Defense Meteorological Satellite Program and ground-based ionosondes","authors":"Rezy Pradipta, Pei-Chen Lai","doi":"10.5194/angeo-42-301-2024","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. A major explosion that released a significant amount of energy into the atmosphere occurred in Beirut on 4 August 2020. The energy released may have reached the upper atmosphere and generated some traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs), which can affect radio wave propagation. In this study, we used data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) and ground-based ionosondes in the Mediterranean region to investigate the ionospheric response to this historic explosion event. Our DMSP data analysis revealed a noticeable increase in the ionospheric electron density near the Beirut area following the explosion, accompanied by some wavelike disturbances. Some characteristic TID signatures were also identified in the shape of ionogram traces at several locations in the Mediterranean. This event occurred during a period of relatively quiet geomagnetic conditions, making the observed TIDs likely to have originated from the Beirut explosion, not from other sources such as auroral activities. These observational findings demonstrate that TIDs from the Beirut explosion were able to propagate over longer distances, beyond the immediate areas of Lebanon and Israel–Palestine, reaching the Mediterranean and eastern Europe.","PeriodicalId":50777,"journal":{"name":"Annales Geophysicae","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.7000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Annales Geophysicae","FirstCategoryId":"89","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-42-301-2024","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract. A major explosion that released a significant amount of energy into the atmosphere occurred in Beirut on 4 August 2020. The energy released may have reached the upper atmosphere and generated some traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs), which can affect radio wave propagation. In this study, we used data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) and ground-based ionosondes in the Mediterranean region to investigate the ionospheric response to this historic explosion event. Our DMSP data analysis revealed a noticeable increase in the ionospheric electron density near the Beirut area following the explosion, accompanied by some wavelike disturbances. Some characteristic TID signatures were also identified in the shape of ionogram traces at several locations in the Mediterranean. This event occurred during a period of relatively quiet geomagnetic conditions, making the observed TIDs likely to have originated from the Beirut explosion, not from other sources such as auroral activities. These observational findings demonstrate that TIDs from the Beirut explosion were able to propagate over longer distances, beyond the immediate areas of Lebanon and Israel–Palestine, reaching the Mediterranean and eastern Europe.
期刊介绍:
Annales Geophysicae (ANGEO) is a not-for-profit international multi- and inter-disciplinary scientific open-access journal in the field of solar–terrestrial and planetary sciences. ANGEO publishes original articles and short communications (letters) on research of the Sun–Earth system, including the science of space weather, solar–terrestrial plasma physics, the Earth''s ionosphere and atmosphere, the magnetosphere, and the study of planets and planetary systems, the interaction between the different spheres of a planet, and the interaction across the planetary system. Topics range from space weathering, planetary magnetic field, and planetary interior and surface dynamics to the formation and evolution of planetary systems.