This collaborative effort between USGS, Los Alamos, Earth Networks, Vaisala, MSFC, Langley, and NOAA examined the explosive eruption of Tonga's underwater Hunga Volcano on 1/15/22. A giant volcanic plume rose out of the ocean and into the mesosphere with heights approaching 58 km. This plume created record-breaking amounts of volcanic lightning which reached over 2,600 flashes per minute using spaceborne lightning and by radio antennas on the ground thousands of kilometers away.
Lightning flash locations expanded outward in a pattern of donut-shaped rings, following the movement of these gravity wave ripples. Optically bright lightning was detected at unusually high altitudes using the Geostationary Lightning Mapper, in regions of the volcanic cloud 20–30 km above sea level.
This article was released in Geophysical Research Letters and has received several press requests. https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2022GL102341
