Unusual Barograph recording noted this evening;Could it be a gravity wave from the eruption at Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai Volcano near Tonga?

[Gavin O'Brien]

Hi everyone,

You will have seen on the TV news, video of the Tsunami impacting the Tonga Islands from the eruption on Hunga -Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai Volcano in the Tongan  Island group located  well out in the South Pacific northeast of the Queensland coast .The eruption occurred at 3.10 pm Eastern Australian Summer Time this afternoon, sending ash up to 10  kilometers altitude and generating Tsunamis onto surrounding island shorelines .  For the first time in ages, the Australian  East Coast has a Tsunami Watch  current, as does most South Pacific Islands including the northern coasts of New Zealand .

I happened to look at my trusty Aneroid Barograph about half an hour ago and I was startled to see the sudden pronounced 'blip' in the trace around 1500 to 1600

 hours, Eastern Australian Summer Time .Note the Barograph Clock time is slow as the real time was from 1945 hours , not 1415 hours (EST) .

Thinking to double check, I have downloaded the Barograph Data from the Davis Vantage Pro 2 PWS and plotted the Barometer Reading data with a second Chart showing the 5 minute variation in pressure variation.  The PWS Data Logger is set to 5 minute intervals. 

The weather here from this afternoon was quite settled, a few scattered small to medium Cumulus and some Cirrostratus at upper levels. Nearest storms were in the Goulburn area . 

Please find attached the two sets of data and graphs. Any suggestions? 

Cheers,

Gavin 

[Ken Kato]

 

Yep Gavin, a big number weather stations up and down eastern Australia have recorded pronounced oscillations in pressure as the gravity waves arrived (I haven’t had time to check any further west though).

 

Here’s just a few of the ones I saved (a huge number of PWS’s recorded them as well), and a satellite loop:

 

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51820475272_8d62448af9_o.gif

 

 

 

 

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[Gavin O'Brien]

I just had a thought- how fast did the gravity wave travel from Tonga to Canberra? 

According to Dr Google the distance from Canberra to Tonga is 3,809km . If the eruption occurred at 15.10 Hours (Eastern Australian Summer Time) and the Barograph recorded the air wave at 18.50 hours  Eastern Australian Daylight Time , then the time = 3.4 hours ..Therefore Distance divided by time elapsed; ie;  3809 km divided by 3.4 hours = 1,120.29 km/hr! 

Cheers

Gavin

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Gavin O'Brien <southsi...@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Jan 16, 2022 at 1:10 PM
Subject: Fwd: [austpacwx] Unusual Barograph recording noted this evening;Could it be a gravity wave from the eruption at Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai Volcano near Tonga?
To: <G...@si.edu>

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Gavin O'Brien <southsi...@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Jan 16, 2022 at 1:02 PM
Subject: Re: [austpacwx] Unusual Barograph recording noted this evening;Could it be a gravity wave from the eruption at Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai Volcano near Tonga?
To: John O'Brien <john_...@westnet.com.au>, Michael O'Brien <michael.o...@gmail.com>, Rachel Riches <rach....@gmail.com>, Vivienne.Micheline.Thurgar <thurg...@bigpond.com>, Chris Rule <car...@iprimus.com.au>, Clare O'Brien <clare.o...@gmail.com>, Thomas Riches <thomas...@gmail.com>, Shaun Cuskelly <shaun.cu...@gmail.com>, Marjie Aguilana <margarita...@yahoo.com>

Hi all,

 Further detailed Barograph Record from Vantage Pro 2 Data Logger re the Volcanically caused atmospheric gravity wave from Tonga eruption.

The attached chart clearly shows the impact of the explosion on the earth's atmosphere from the blast! The energy involved must have been truly massive .The Tsunamis generated now affecting the entire Pacific Basin shorelines either indicate a wholesale foundering of the volcano into its magma chamber or a massive hydro-thermal steam blast when magma interacted with sea water ingress into the vent/s?

Just a few thoughts?

Gavin

On Sun, Jan 16, 2022 at 9:34 AM Gavin O'Brien <southsi...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi all,

See Ken's post on the Report I posted.I was correct. Certainly the best example I have ever seen. The famous Krakatoa  between Java and Samartra ( Indonesia ) caused a similar effect around the world in August 1883 when it staged its huge eruption. It will be interesting to see the impacts ., particularly if the Volcano puts a huge amount of Sulphur Dioxide into the upper atmosphere as being located in the tropics it can have quite a marked impact on global temperatures as Pinatubo did in 1991/92  and unusual; fiery sun rises/sets. too. again Pinatubo (Philippines) /Cerro Hudson ( Chile) did .

Cheers

Gavin

----- Forwarded message ---------

From: Ken Kato <kka...@hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, Jan 16, 2022 at 1:02 AM
Subject: RE: [austpacwx] Unusual Barograph recording noted this evening;Could it be a gravity wave from the eruption at Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai Volcano near Tonga?
To: aust...@googlegroups.com <aust...@googlegroups.com>

 

Yep Gavin, a big number weather stations up and down eastern Australia have recorded pronounced oscillations in pressure as the gravity waves arrived (I haven’t had time to check any further west though).

 

Here’s just a few of the ones I saved (a huge number of PWS’s recorded them as well), and a satellite loop:

 

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51820475272_8d62448af9_o.gif

 

 

 

 

 Hi from Australia,

Please find information and data we have complied on the eruption in the Kingdom of Toga Saturday evening (our time) .

Best wishes,

Gavin A. O'Brien (FRMetS)

Climate Watch Australia

Gilmore ACT 2903 Australia 

 

 

From: Gavin O'Brien
Sent: Saturday, 15 January 2022 11:36 PM
To: aust...@googlegroups.com; Jeff and Marcia Kingwell; John O'Brien; Chris Rule; Don White; Michael O'Brien; Rachel Riches; Thomas Riches; Vivienne.Micheline.Thurgar; Shaun Cuskelly; Marjie Aguilana; Tim Morrow
Subject: [austpacwx] Unusual Barograph recording noted this evening;Could it be a gravity wave from the eruption at Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai Volcano near Tonga?

 

Hi everyone,

You will have seen on the TV news, video of the Tsunami impacting the Tonga Islands from the eruption on Hunga -Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai Volcano in the Tongan  Island group located  well out in the South Pacific northeast of the Queensland coast .The eruption occurred at 3.10 pm Eastern Australian Summer Time this afternoon, sending ash up to 10  kilometers altitude and generating Tsunamis onto surrounding island shorelines .  For the first time in ages, the Australian  East Coast has a Tsunami Watch  current, as does most South Pacific Islands including the northern coasts of New Zealand .

I happened to look at my trusty Aneroid Barograph about half an hour ago and I was startled to see the sudden pronounced 'blip' in the trace around 1500 to 1600

 hours, Eastern Australian Summer Time .Note the Barograph Clock time is slow as the real time was from 1945 hours , not 1415 hours (EST) .

 

Thinking to double check, I have downloaded the Barograph Data from the Davis Vantage Pro 2 PWS and plotted the Barometer Reading data with a second Chart showing the 5 minute variation in pressure variation.  The PWS Data Logger is set to 5 minute intervals. 

 

The weather here from this afternoon was quite settled, a few scattered small to medium Cumulus and some Cirrostratus at upper levels. Nearest storms were in the Goulburn area . 

Please find attached the two sets of data and graphs. Any suggestions? 

 

Cheers,

 

Gavin 

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[Ken Kato]

I actually did a rough calculation of this yesterday as follows:

 

Given the big eruption occurred at about 2pm, the first spike in pressure at Brisbane was at about 5pm, and the great circle distance between the eruption and Brisbane is ~3266km, that equates to an average speed of the gravity waves of 1088km/hr (still under the speed of sound which is ~1225km/hr at sea level at a standard 15C temp).

That 1088km/hr is an average as well as an estimate though. For example, it's quite possible that it was faster (as a true shockwave) much closer to the eruption when it first fired up.

 

Ken.

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[Gavin O'Brien]

Thanks Ken,

The news reports and video images from around the Pacific Rim are extraordinary .Heaps of coastal flooding well away from Tonga. I wonder if it was a result of associated undersea earthquakes  due to caldera collapse, as pyroclastic surges into the ocean would produce local Tsunamis .However  I doubt they would have the energy to push right across the Pacific?

Gavin  

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[Andrew Miskelly]

Hi all,

Here's a visualisation of the pressure wave using the 10-minute change in water vapour temperature (band 10) from Himawari-8.

https://anero.id/shared/pressure-wave-20220115-640x640.gif

One interesting feature is the intersection of this wave with more localised gravity waves produced by thunderstorms over the Pilbara (about 3 seconds into the animation).

Andrew

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[Ken Kato]

I don’t know too much about it but I think it was due to the eruption itself (including the magma surging up through the water) which was near the side of the caldera and the cone formed in 2014/2015. It looked too close to the water level to form a big pyroclastic flow. But I stand to be corrected.

 

Incidentally, here are some gifs which illustrate the sheer power of it. And also the volcanic ash which reached QLD this morning:

 

https://twitter.com/burgwx/status/1482732634077732868

 

https://twitter.com/wni_jp/status/1482350492282134530

 

These pressure oscillations were also recorded as far away as Europe.

 

Photo from Kyra Fleet:

 

 

 

Photo from Dave Brown in Kawana Waters:

 

 

 

Suzette Reid from Kurrimine Beach:

 

 

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