Meteorological Tsunamis: From Local Hazard to Global Relevance

Abstract

Research on meteorological tsunamis or meteotsunamis—long ocean waves in the tsunami frequency band generated by propagating atmospheric disturbances which resonantly enhance ocean waves—has grown significantly in recent decades. This expansion is due to progress in (a) ocean and atmospheric measurements, including advanced instrumentation with higher precision and smaller sampling time steps, as well as installation of meteotsunami tracking measurement networks, (b) ocean and atmospheric data products, including those related to the upper atmosphere and ionosphere, and (c) supercomputing capabilities and sophisticated atmosphere-ocean models that successfully simulate both atmospheric planetary processes and mesoscale systems capable of generating meteotsunamis, as well as sea level response to these. Meteotsunamis can induce multi-meter sea level oscillations in harbors and low-lying areas, leading to severe flooding, infrastructure damage, injuries, and sometimes fatalities. Traditionally, meteotsunami research focused on individual event analyses using available sea level and lower-layer atmospheric observations. Recently, efforts have shifted toward global hazard mapping, the development of forecast and early-warning systems, and toward quantifying projected meteotsunamis intensity and frequency, using climate models. The January 2022 eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano, which generated acoustic-gravity waves that circled the globe, has spurred research of planetary meteotsunami waves and their potential to pose coastal hazards worldwide. Additionally, meteotsunamis radiate acoustic-gravity waves vertically, creating ionospheric oscillations detectable through electron content variations. This review will cover the mentioned developments and conclude with a discussion of research gaps and potential directions for further studies.